The Subject
by Darth Riven
Summary: GSGSD AU What should really happen in GSD without all the boring bits. Anyway, please R and R this. KxL,AxC,DxM,SxS,YxS for now...no yaoi or yuri. Completed until Third Series of SEED.
1. Prologue: Between The Stars

The SUBJECT – Prologue: Between the Stars and a little bit added in

A/N: I don't own Gundam Seed or Gundam Seed Destiny. There are spoilers for Gundam Seed and Seed Destiny (1-16) in this story. Anyway, you should be able to work out what is going on pretty quickly, so anyway, I hope you enjoy this and please review it and tell me what you guys think. So read and review it Please!

Kira sat on a rocking chair, facing the ocean on the balcony of the orphanage, reflecting on the events of the past year. The war which had taken him from being a child on Heliopolis, to being an adult, running an orphanage with the girl of his dreams, Lacus.

Meanwhile, Lacus was working in the kitchen, cooking while some of the orphans helped her and played in the kitchen. She heard two of them fighting over cutting up the food. "My, my, if you fight you can't make anything good to eat," she chided gently, because she knew that the children meant well, it was only a petty squabble.

The news was playing on the TV as it relayed news of the peace talks between PLANT and Earth. They seemed to be progressing along quite well. Athrun and Cagalli were flying in a jet towards the orphanage, after a hard day's work at the negotiating table, as the news continued to broadcast over the jet's communications system.

Later that night at dinner, Cagalli said, "Still it is a really hard thing to do, The whole country or ORB was ravaged by the war. That is why they truly understand the foolishness of war and how precious peace is," she looked at Lacus, sitting across the table from her before she continued, "However there are countries that don't."

Lacus replied with a common saying, "if you don't trust the other person then don't lower your gun," then she paused for a second, "It's like that isn't it? I wonder if PLANT's situation is similar."

On PLANT headquarters, Yzak, Dearka and Shiho walked through the doors of the Capitol building, Yzak's scar from the previous war had been surgically removed, Dearka had been pardoned for fighting for ORB and the Clyne faction.

Back in the orphanage on Earth, Lacus continued the conversation, "First we must both lower our guns or else,"

"Even though we should already understand this, all of us, "Cagalli replied, both of them fully understanding what the war had cost them, both of their fathers had died, working to achieve peace. It was a sacrifice that would be well-remebered by them for the rest of their lives.

After dinner, the some of the children went outside to play, and the others stayed behind to help Lacus and Cagalli to clear the tables. Athrun found himself a bit out of place, in a oddly reflective mood. He walked outside and found Kira looking at the stars in the sky, Athrun walked up to Kira on the beach and stood next to him.

Kira spoke, "It's strange isn't it? Why am I still alive? Why am I able to eat? Why am I able to sleep? Is it because I'm still alive?" As he reflected on the battle against the insane Crueset, who had tried to wipe out all of humanity.

Athrun replied voice sort of distant, "Everyone's thinking the same thing, Kira, so am I," He remebred what had happened when he had tried to commit suicide in destroying the Genesis weapon but how Cagalli had saved him. _Don't run to fight is to live._ He continued, coming out of his reverie "But this may be our way to make up for things. It never ends because we shouldn't let it end. The world."

Murrue sat in her new cottage on ORB, a cup of tea in her hand, for a moment she imagined Mwu sitting opposite her, a mug of coffee in his hand, he was smiling, happy, she remembered their brief relationship, _he had promised me to come back for me but he didn't_. She closed her eyes, as his image drifted away.

Sai sat in his office, programming, pictures of his friends, Kira, Millaria, Kuzzey, Tolle and Fllay, the latter two now dead, pinned up on a corkboard next to him. He had enjoyed his new work, he knew that Fllay had just been using Kira all along, he thought that she shouldn't have done that to her own friend, but he understood her point of view, she had no one left after her father had died.

Andy, Kisaka and Erica stood in the Morgenraete lab, working on the repair of Freedom and the Archangel, as well as the development of new mobile suits. Even though peace was being hammered out, there would always be the threat of future wars and Orb was not the most stable of all nations, partly because it welcomed both Naturals and Coordinators, it was a target for Blue Cosmos and Zala faction terrorists. So they worked on shoring up Orb's defences against such attacks, secretly, while Princess Cagalli worked for peace.

Milliaria sat at the foot of her bed, remembering Tolle, tears came to her eyes, as she lowered her head to her knees, she didn't know what she would do next. She thought she had had some feelings for Dearka, the pilot of the Buster, but he had gone back to PLANT and she didn't know when she would see him again, and anyway, she needed some time to heal before she entered into another relationship.

With dinner cleared up, Cagalli and Lacus stood on the veranda, with two of the orphans. "You know what, it's amazing you even went on the battlefield." Cagalli commented as she looked at the sky.

"Huh?" Lacus replied, surprised that Cagalli would say such a thing.

"Doing that suits you well," Cagalli responded.

"Is that right? But even when Kira was crying he still said he would return. We may still not understand what we should be doing. The world, it isn't something one creates. It's…" Lacus said to Cagalli

One of the children interrupted her then, "There are a lot of shooting stars again today" her voice showing wonder and amazement.

Meanwhile, back on the beach cliff, Athrun turned around and said, "Kira" he walked over to him and put his hand on Kira's shoulder, as they walked back towards the orphanage.

In a secret lab, somewhere, a man lay on a bed inside a chamber, tubes coming out of his grievously injured body, the artificial respirator pumping in and out. A man observing from outside, through a glass window, stood at a computer terminal monitoring his patient's vitals. The door behind him opened and closed, as he turned around he saw Lord Jibril who asked, "How is the subject? I trust that there would be no permanent damage."

"Uhh…yes, sir, there should be no permanent damage, but the trauma of the accident would may have some unforseen effects. Monitoring seems to show that the subject suffers from amnesia," the scientist replied.

_Even better, that should save time, I can feed him whatever information I want and the subject will believe it to be true_. "Good, see that there is no other damage but for the amnesia. I have a use for the subject. I will be back in a month, see that he is fully recovered by then," Jibril ordered, and then he turned around and walked out.

"Yes, Lord Jibril," the scientist replied.

On PLANT, Shinn Asuka graduated as a pilots for ZAFT, none of his family or friends were there, having perished when the Earth Alliance had attacked Orb in the war, _if only Orb had done something else, instead of sugar-coating their words, Mayu would still live_._ I hate the principles that Orb stands for and I hate those Attha's._ He received his assignment the next day, he was to go to Armoury One and serve as a test pilot on the Minerva.

Jibril exited that lab as he went on towards the next wing, there he saw the next batch of human-CPU subjects, but the progress on that experiment was slow. The first three had proven unsuccessful, destroyed, and half-insane. _Progress will need to be made before we can move once again for a clean and blue world_. This next batch seemed to only understand a few things and reports indicated that they would need someone to control them, someone experienced in command, that was why he had saved the Subject to use him as a commander.


	2. Chapter 1: The Next Generation

The Subject Chapter 1: The Next Generation

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Seed or Seed Destiny.

_A/N: Thank You Etanzel-Angel and MindLezz for the reviews. Anyway this second chapter covers up to Episode 1 of Gundam Seed Destiny. So as you guys should have probably guessed this fic will focus on Neo. So most of it will be his POV and thoughts though there will be others indispersed within the fic. Anyway, enjoy this new chapter and R and R. Any sort of criticism and flaming will be welcome._

Lord Jibril walked into the lab as he had promised, the same scientist still attended the medical console, monitoring the Subject. "Your one month is up, I see he is awake and functioning."

"Yes, the Subject has recovered all bodily functions but as was predicted retains no memories of his life, he is a clean slate for you to work with. You know that the Subject could never appear in public again, as a traitor to our cause," the scientist replied, asking as much as he dared.

"He is too useful to waste, and I plan to use him to strike back at those that he worked with, revenge would be so much sweeter that way," Lord Jibril said, shaking his head at the scientist, "You ask too much, I have everything in control. Now may I talk to him?"

The scientist complied by opening the seals on the chamber and Lord Jibril walked in and sat on a chair next to the Subject, "You may bring him out of his sleep now," he ordered the scientist as the scientist manipulated the console in the observation room.

As sleep wore off, the Subject opened his eyes, _Where am I? Who am I? I don't remember anything._ He looked up and saw another man sitting beside his bed, he saw that he was in a experimental laboratory. Jibril saw that the Subject was now conscious, awake, so he spoke, "I am Jibril, you are Neo Lorrnoke, you were grievously injured in an accident. As soon as we found you and found out hat you had amnesia, I took the liberty of putting together a life history for you to read about yourself. Here," he handed Neo, the file, outlining his life and his deeds. "Oh, and this will be yours as well," Jibril continued, handing Neo the masked helm, "there are some dangerous enemies out there who would kill you if they found out you were still alive. But I should leave you to your reading now. You are still very weak, but we can talk again later." Jibril exited the chamber, and the scientist sealed the door behind him.

Neo sat up in the bed reading the file that the mysterious stranger Jibril had handed him. He carefully scanned the long biography that Jibril had left for him. _Occupation: Pilot_. The bio began with a childhood, that wasn't anything special. He had joined the Earth Military at 18 and had shown special aptitude at piloting and so they had made him a squadron leader. He had been transferred to secret research when the war had broken out between Earth and PLANT, testing Mobile Suits, when ZAFT had sabotaged the experiment, destroying the secret research lab and killing many civilians in the process as well. _So this ZAFT is probably the one that wants to destroy me_.

He continued reading the second document in the file, this one outlined the war between Earth and PLANT, and how PLANT had unleashed the super-weapon Genesis, killing many of the brave men and women of the Earth Alliance, it talked of PLANT using nuclear weapons against helpless people, wiping out enemy diplomats without reason until the brave Earth Alliance fleet had shattered PLANT and another neutral nation called Orb had come in to broker a ceasefire, but that wasn't going to last.

No mention was made of the three ships that had fought for peace, they had been conveniently left out by Jibril, to help harden Neo's resolve against the evil PLANT and their armies of Mobile Suits. The second document concluded, whilst the Genesis had been destroyed, PLANT would no doubt try to rebuild the weapon and was using this ceasefire to develop new Mobile Suits which would give them supreme power if the war ever broke out again.

Meanwhile, on Earth, Lacus and Kira were settling down at the orphanage, caring for the war orphans. Kira seemed to be at peace now, as he held Lacus in his arms, while keeping a watch over the children. She bent in for a quick kiss and he kissed her back. Things were finally going better, peace reigned over the world, Cagalli, was working hard as Princess of Orb to keep the peace together, but she and Athrun had been getting a lot closer to each other, even though he had taken on an alias. Little did he know that there were powerful forces at work trying to revive the war, and that he and his friends who had suffered so much in the first war would suffer again.

Shinn had been assigned to the pilot program for one month now, and his test scores were really good. Today, he would learn to pilot the experimental Core Splendour, which could have parts attached to it to become the Impulse Gundam. Over this past month, he had made some friends, who filled up part of the void that Orb had left in his life. Rey and Lunamaria were test pilots like him. Rey was definitely a lot more mature, having been in ZAFT the longest out of them three, Lunamaria, was a red headed girl, who had a crush on Athrun Zala, one of ZAFT's best pilots, but who had disappeared during the war and was rumoured to have crossed over to Orb, the nation that Shinn so despised.

There was also Meyrin and Youlan who worked on the Minerva. Meyrin was Lunamaria's sister. He saw them sometimes, but not as much as he saw Rey or Lunamaria, whom he would frequently see in the pilot's lounge.

On PLANT, Dullindal met with a young girl called Mia Campbell, as he set his own plans for PLANT into motion. Mia would be trained to act, sing and would have surgery so that she would appear to be Lacus Clyne, who had disappeared at the end of the first phase of the war, he knew that the war was going to continue, and Lacus was the perfect person to ignite the flames in the hearts of the Co-ordinators.

He knew the secret project on Armoury One, developing the new Gundams would be progressing along nicely, and his secret meetings with members of the remnants of the Zala faction would allow him to manipulate them into restarting the war without involving the rest of PLANT, which would then lead to retaliation by Earth which would start the new war, one in which he planned to be victorious.

Two weeks had passed since Neo had found out again about his past. Lord Jibril's present of the Exus Mobile Armour, had been a nice gesture. He had attended many debriefings after testing the new generation mobile suits that Blue Cosmos had been developing, specifically the new Windam Units that were to form the backbone of the new Earth Alliance army.

The debriefings had also included intelligence reports from spies deep within ZAFT, which indicated that they were also participating in the new arms race, developing new mobile suit units, Gundams; the Chaos, Gaia and Abyss. It was on that end that Jibril introduced Neo to the next generation of Human CPUs, Sting Oakley, Auel Neider and Stellar Loussier.

Neo had been given their files by Lord Jibril the previous week, and he had spent time going over the pilot records and test scores. Sting Oakley was seventeen years old, with Auel two years his junior, at 15 and Stellar stood in between the two boys, at 16.

The next month began a series of training exercises for the three human CPUs to get them familiar with piloting Gundams. Using data gathered by Azrael, the Lab built a series of simulators for the pilots, collecting both data and preparing the pilots for battle.

It was much later when Lord Jibril himself, turned up an exhausting training session, to plan the first strike in the new war. Intelligence had found out that Orb's Princess Cagalli Yura Athha was due to make a secret visit to Armoury One, within the week and that the Phantom Pain was being accelerated to coincide with the visit, even though security would be increased, it would be distracted and easier to circumvent with everything in a disarray.

By now, the pilot's were ready for the mission, what remained was to infiltrate the three human-CPUs into Armoury One and to execute the plan and steal the Gundams from ZAFT, like they had done at Heliopolis. Neo and Lord Jibril planned the mission down to the finest details, and even though Stellar showed some signs of instability they would not manifest unless under extreme stress which, if the mission went as planned, would not have a chance of happening.

Meanwhile, on Earth, Cagalli and Athrun were preparing for their trip to Armoury One and secret talks with PLANT chairman Gilbert Dullindal at Armoury One. Cagalli had opted for a formal jacket and pants rather than a dress, because the meeting was to be a secret, she decided that the less formal she looked the less suspicion it would raise, both at home and abroad. As they boarded the shuttle bound from Orb to PLANT, Sting, Stellar and Auel disembarked from a shuttle arriving at PLANT, greeted by Lord Jibril's agents, with final mission orders whilst the Girty Lue remained cloaked near Armoury One ready to create pandemonium, for the Gundams to be stolen from ZAFT and then retrieved by themselves.

One week later, Cagalli and Athrun rode on the shuttle as it pulled into Armoury One, on October 2nd Cosmic Era 73, for the secret meeting, looking forward to a meeting where they would be able to achieve peace, little knowing the storm that would be unleashed when Jibril's plan came to fruition.

_The beginning_…


	3. Chapter 2: The Great Gundam Hijack

Chapter TWO: Episode 1-5 (The Great Gundam Hijack)

_A/N: Thanks Angel of Dreams for the great review. Anyway, here is a sort of half-summary of Seed Destiny Episode 1-5 with bits added in by me of course. This chapter and the next chapter are going to basically cover the rest of the episodes till episode 16. These next two chapters will be omstly Neo POV with a bit of the others thrown in for some flavour. Anyway, I hope everyone here is keeping up with Gundam Seed Destiny cos' it is great. **BTW, don't forget to read and review the chapter...**_

Neo sat upon the bridge of the Girty Lue, he looked down at his watch as the the Mobile Suits he had launched to take out the ZAFT section gates should arrive at their places to destroy the ZAFT docks just about now, as the timer on his watch ticked down to zero "Alright, let's go, in a calm manner," Neo ordered as the mirage colloid was about to be deactivated, "Missiles launching at the Nazca. While aiming, simultaneously target the ship's mirage colloid and destroy it. Now then let's begin a new chapter. Full speed ahead," he ordered like an experienced officer.

The Girty Lue dropped it's mirage colloid as it fired it Gottfried cannons at the Nazca class, destroying it. It went into full combat as its own mirage colloid faded. _Goo, everything is running precisely on schedule_,_ their launch tubes should be out of commission._

Meanwhile, inside Armoury One, Gaia, Chaos and Abyss were engaged in a battle with Impulse and the other ZAFT units. They were running behind schedule, but Impulse was taking up too much of their time and more ZAFT reinforcements were coming. Outside the battle continued, the Girty Lue's superior tactics kept the ZAFT fleet on the back foot. As Neo looked again at his watch he realised that the three pilots were running behind schedule. Back inside the PLANT, Auel used Stellar's block word on her and she turned and flew the Gaia up and away from the fighting, obviously too stressed to fight anymore.

Back on the bridge of the Girty Lue, Neo decided that he would have to launch in the Exus to buy his three Gundam pilots more time to fulfil their mission, and to delay ZAFT forces from catching up with them. The Exus Mobile Armour launched from the hold of the Girty Lue, and immediately engaged the nearest ZAFT mobile suits, disengaging its automated pods which fired and destroyed three mobile suits in quick succession. Neo allowed himself a little smile as he destroyed the enemy; it seemed so familiar to him.

Inside Armoury One, Rey Za Burrel, noticed something strange, he had a flash of consciousness, he felt that something was terribly wrong, there was someone outside leading the attack. _What was that_? But Rey had more important things to concentrate on now, to not let the Gundams escape.

The Exus rested, attached to the side of the PLANT as Neo watched, his three Gundam pilots escape towards the Girty Lue, late, _I see this may be due to a miscalculation, I guess_, he thought to himself as the three Gundams landed on the Girty Lue's hold. The Exus detached itself and flew away back towards the Girty Lue to make good their escape.

As the Exus detached itself, Rey had another of those flashes, something was definitely wrong here, as he looked around. The Exus detached its pods, as Neo engaged Shinn in battle, seeing Impulse, Neo thought that they would have to capture this one as well, as he swooped around for a second strafing run. Rey rushed towards the battle to rescue Shinn, who was obviously out of his element even though he was in a better machine, as he looked back he saw the Girty Lue come up behind him. Meanwhile, the Minerva prepared to launch on its maiden combat voyage.

Neo was totally outclassing Shinn, confusing him with too many fast moving targets, as the pods peppered laser fire at the Impulse. As the Blaze Zaku Phantom approached the battle, Neo felt something deep within his consciousness, a flash which caused him to worry, it had never happened before or had it. But he had more to concentrate on now, like capturing the Impulse, as he saw the White Zaku interpose itself between the lasers and the Impulse. _What is this_, he thought as he saw the White Zaku twist and manoeuvre expertly, taking out one and then two of his pods, and with the Minerva approaching the Girty Lue, Neo decided that it was time to withdraw.

The running firefight between the Minerva and the Girty Lue continued as the mobile suits and armours all docked back on their respective ships. Neo, back in the command chair, decided that it was time for the Girty Lue to lose the enemy ship, "Detach both side propellent tanks and then detonate them," he ordered, "Detaching them with their side arms is fine1 Let's dazzle those bastards. At the same time rise 35 degrees, portside 1 degrees, engines at maximum," as the crew complied with the orders, the side arms detached headed straight for the Minerva, a giant bomb, the Minerva however, emerged through scratched but otherwise unscathed.

Onboard the Girty Lue, Neo watched as his three pilots rested in their cradles, troubled by Auel's use of Stellar's block word. It might create some trouble later on, but now, the mission would be counted as a success, as long as they could evade the enemy ship. As they approached the debris belt, Neo instituted the second part of the plan, the anchor gambit which would lead to the enemy's destruction…hopefully, if they fell for the ambush. "Fire the anchor, at the same time, stop the engines and launch the decoy. Don't screw up on the timing," Neo ordered, as they approached the underside of a large asteroid. The Girty Lue fired its anchor, and it swung around up and over the asteroid, as the decoy continued on the previous path.

Meanwhile, on the Gunner Zaku Warrior and the Impulse launched, prepared to engage the Girty Lue and capture the three Gundams. "It's a decoy," Athrun shouted as the Minerva approached the ambush. Suddenly, the Girty Lue appeared behind the Minerva, launching mobile suits, and firing. The Minerva had no choice but to go around the asteroid and use it as a shield, as the missiles slammed into the asteroid spewing fragments of rock everywhere. The Minerva shook as it took a hammering from the enemy. They were trapped against the asteroid, unable to use half of its own weapons, they were outgunned and outmanoeuvred.

On the bridge of the Girty Lue, Neo ordered the ship to fire at the asteroid to stop the Minerva, as he decided to launch in Exus. The Minerva was taking battering from the rock fragments as the Girty Lue peppered the asteroid with missiles, dislodging chunks of the asteroid. The situation was getting direr by the minute, as chunks of asteroid interposed themselves within the Minerva's path. Rey's Zaku launched from the Minerva to engage the oncoming mobile armour and mobile suits.

_It's that strange feeling again_, Neo realised as he prepared for his strafing run on the Minerva. The Exus changed course, to engage the Rey's Zaku as its pods detached and began to fire. The White Zaku quickly took out on the mobile suits, _what is with this kid in white_, Neo thought as he ordered the second mobile suit to attack Minerva as he saw the White Zaku go after the mobile suit, he prepared to ambush the White Zaku.

Rey swerved around and fired his missiles at the mobile suit, distracting it so that he could finish it off and then he saw that the Exus was gone. AS the Minerva followed Athrun's plan to escape the asteroid, it fired its starboard weaponry to escape and then lined up a shot on the Tannhauser at the enemy ship. The Minerva cruised past the now damaged Girty Lue.

"Damn! To think that they would turn things around from that situation…" Neo cursed to himself as he prepared to fire on the Minerva, however, Rey had caught up by now and fired at shot at his starboard, and he had to disengage from the strafing run, as Neo weaved and dodged Rey's Zaku's blasts, he fired the withdrawal signal.


	4. Chapter 3: Enter the Saviour

CHAPTER THREE – Enter the Saviour(Ep.6-9,15-16)

_A/N: The flagship is called the JP Jones in the episode. It was named after a famous guy in America's battle for independence, so I just gave the full name. Sorry if the thing isn't quite that accurate. Anyway this is the second part of the series so far. I again added extra bits to it. I just had to put in Shinn getting slapped by Athrun, I thought that was one of the best bits of the series so far, Shinn is just far too undisciplined for his own good. This is a repost and Chapter 4 will also come up._

On the bridge of the Girty Lue, Neo watched on the screen as he saw ZAFT mobile suits battling in the ruins of Junius Seven, "Finding ZAFT mobile suits here…I wonder what that means," his subordinate Captain Lee remarked.

"Who knows…perhaps this uproar is not merely due to a capricious God. Send out Sting and the others. I want to observe the situation. Record as much of it as you can," Neo replied as they continued to observe the running firefight on Junius Seven.

The Girty Lue floated in space, continuing to observe the battle, when a message from the international distress channel, outlining Minerva and PLANT's mission to destroy Junius Seven before it impacted on earth by splitting it down into smaller pieces. "Send the recall signal, we have all we need and if we are to stay in space the Gundams should withdraw now," Neo ordered as the green, pink and blue signal flares were fired into space. The three Gundams withdrew from the battle, brimming with battle data that would supplement the data collected by the Girty Lue. "Send out all the data to Lord Jibril as soon as possible," Neo ordered as his pilots returned into the hold of the Girty Lue. He floated out the door of the bridge to debrief his pilots and inspect the damage on the Gundams. "Ehhh…" he sighed as he entered the hold and saw the damage, "you guys were totally outclassed by those ZAFT pilots. I expect better next time."

The waves crashed onto the beach front as Lacus came to join Kira on the beach, "A storm is coming isn't it?" Lacus asked, worried that the war they had worked so hard to end was going to start again, and this, just as bad as the nuclear attack on Junius Seven which began the last war.

"Yes, I know," Kira replied, thinking much the same thoughts as Lacus as they watched the waves crash on the shore.

Lord Jibril sat in his office in his magnificent country manor, receiving the data from the battle. Of particular interest to him were the pictures of ZAFT GINNs on the ruins of Junius Seven aiding it to fall. _Well then, that should do it. The war shall continue. For a clean and pure world. I will have to distribute these_. "Good job, Colonel Lorrnoke," he said, "you are required to come down to Earth to finish that troublesome ship, a shuttle will come for you and your three pilots and their Gundams. See that they do better next time, Colonel." He cut off transmission, it would be quite risky to let ZAFT find out that he was behind the attack on Armoury One.

On the Earth flagship John Paul Jones, Neo looked at the radar, "At last we meet again, I've found you, little kitten," he said, as the Minerva appeared on the radar, heading straight for the new base. He called the base and requisitioned all available Windam Mobile Suits. He left precise instructions for the flagship to stay hidden as he went to give his pilots one last briefing.

He joined the other pilots in the hold, as he walked in, Stellar ran towards him, "Neo," her eyes like a schoolgirl who saw the object of her first crush. She ran up to kiss him, but he stopped her.

"It's a shame that I can't go with Stellar to the battlefield. But there is no other way, even though the ship should be safe, you should take care of it," Neo said, as the other two departed to their mobile suits. Sting would be joining him and the other Windams to lead the aerial attack, while Auel would attack from underwater.

Sting and Auel both launched from the flagship, as his custom-Windam slid out to the launch pad he thought to himself, "If we could put an end to this now, I'll be quite satisfied," and then said "Neo Lorrnoke, Windam going out."

The Windams and Chaos flew in formation towards the Minerva, ready to attack and destroy it. Two blips appeared on the radar, one the Impulse the second one unknown. "What is this? Another new model unit huh? From Carpentaria? ZAFT sure is amazing," Neo thought both enemies approached.

In the cockpit of Chaos, Sting cursed, "That insignificant thing," as he broke formation and rushed towards Saviour.

"Hey Sting!" Neo said, as he considered his next move, "Oh well. I guess I'll go engage our old friend over there," as the Impulse moved to engage him. _Sting should be able to keep the new suit busy while we take out the Impulse._ Shinn, stopped and shot, blowing Windams out of the sky. He saw Neo's Windam and gave chase, shooting as he saw Neo's Windam duck under the clouds. Green beams came through the clouds causing him to have to dodge, _how does he fire so accurately through the clouds_. _Damn! Who is this guy? he flies so fast?_ Neo's Windam crossed up and down, through the clouds, keeping Shinn busy but the other Windam's were not doing much.

_Don't get so cocky ZAFT's ace-kun._ "Don't get careless, team up and corner him," Neo ordered, as the Windams fire tracked Impulse which was too busy defending to attack anything.

_Damn it!_ Shinn thought as the fire continued, when Athrun's voice came through the comm. channel, "Shinn, you're moving too far away, what are you doing?" Shinn ignored Athrun as he blew up more of the enemy Windam's, while chasing Neo's Windam. _It's this one! Shooting down this one will do it_, he thought to himself, as he destroyed the remaining Windams

Neo cursed, as he dodged the Impulse's laserfire "You've improved more than I expected. Well now, what should I do?" as he carefully weighed his next options. The Windams he had scrounged were getting destroyed too quickly; the pilot of the Impulse had improved since the last battle. He flew down towards the island base.

"Neo," Stellar, in Gaia saw that her leader was in trouble as she turned Gaia into beast-form and glided on top of the water as Neo's Windam passed with Impulse behind it, she pounced trapping Impulse in the water. Neo looped around ready to deliver the killing blow but had to pull out as Saviour swooped rescuing Shinn.

"Damn that one's powerful too. Sting, go around from the back," Neo ordered as he and Sting concentrated on the new suit, trying to destroy it, Chaos detached its pods which fired on the Saviour, which dodged and returned fire.

"Shinn, retreat, you're walking into their trap," Athrun ordered as he saw Impulse engage the Gaia in a saber fight. "Shut up, I can take him," Shinn's voice rang with conviction through the comm. channel as he dodged fire from Windam and Chaos.

"We're at our limit already, I guess choosing this place as our stage was a bad idea…Jones, we're withdrawing. Prepare to rendezvous. Auel, Sting, Stellar, that's it, retreat," Neo ordered as he saw that they weren't going to do any more damage without the numerical advantage that the Windams had given them

"Why?" Auel asked through the comm. channel, he still hadn't engaged the ZAFT submarine underwater.

"The suits we borrowed have been wiped out. Plus they have penetrated the secret base," Neo replied, annoyed at the bad piloting of his forces and the good piloting of the enemy.

"What? What were you doing? Numbskull," Auel said, mockingly.

"Don't say that. You haven't taken out anything big either, have you," Neo replied.

"All right then, I will," Auel said, a challenge implied in his voice, as he sped towards the ZAFT submarine.

The Earth Alliance base tried to resist Shinn's Impulse with tanks, but Shinn was enraged and fired wantonly, destroying everything, after he saw the army slaughtering the citizens, he had been reminded about his family and how they had died at Orb. So he shot and shot again, vaporizing the enemy installations. "Shinn? What are you doing, Stop It! They no longer have the power to fight," he heard Athrun's voice through the comm., but ignored it as he went to pull the fence up, separating the men and their families.

Later, back on the Minerva, _slap!_ The sound reverberated through the ship's hold as Athrun slapped Shinn for insubordination and disobeying orders. Shinn full of defiance replied, "I don't really mind if you want to hit me, but…But, I didn't do anything wrong. Those people were saved by what I did, and…"

Athrun slapped him again, harder, twisting Shinn's head around the other way. Shinn's look of defiance remained, "War isn't about playing hero. Don't make solitary decisions just as you please! If you have power, be conscious of it," Athrun advised, though not in a friendly manner, as he turned around and stalked out of the hangar.

Kira and Lacus had not regretted saving Cagalli from a loveless marriage, there was no way they could have let their friend Athrun lose his true love due to politicking by government officials. "There's no way, I could have let that slimeball steal my sister from my best friend," Kira told Lacus as they sat in their room onboard the Archangel. Lacus laughed, "I know, there's no way I could let Athrun lose Cagalli. I have half a mind to go to PLANT to stop them from faking me and to drag Athrun here so that he and Cagalli can get married." Both of them laughed as she said this and they held each other, as Cagalli stood outside, her ear to the door, she had overheard what they had just said. _Perhaps they were right. I can't give up so easily. Father never would have._ She would get together with Athrun again, no matter what.

_A/N: Did you guys like the bit of Kira/Lacus at the end. I know that it is probably a bit out of character for Kira but when I watched that ep, I knew I had to put that snide comment in…I hope you enjoyed that 'fun' bit. Next Chapter: A Promise Unfulfilled. _


	5. Chapter 4: A Promise Unfulfilled

Chapter 4: A Promise Unfulfilled

**AngelOfDreams: Here's a longer chapter for you I hope you enjoy it.**

**Tara: Yeah...Kira and Lacus were a bit OOC but in Episode 17 they seem to be quite suspicious and pissed at Dullindal...so I sort of took that and went with it but I was really having a bit of fun.**

**Asga: I promise that Shinn will be slapped again though by who I won't say. There will be more Kira x Lacus and Athrun x Cagalli later.**

_A/N: Here onwards, it shall be mine own ideas entirely based off what I speculate so it will probably go AU when the new episodes come out. Anyway enjoy this. After this chapter you should know what I'm going on about. Did you like the bit of implied one side Stellar x Neo in the last chapter? You can clearly see that she made to kiss him but he didn't kiss her. Anyway, enjoy the chapter and give me your thoughts_.

Murrue sat on her chair on the bridge on Archangel which was currently under the sea near Scandanavia. They had just watched the video of the fake Lacus concert being broadcast by PLANT. She could see that the real Lacus, in the CIC chair was getting annoyed at her fake counterpart who flaunted her body much more than the real Lacus would ever have.

"Because I don't know what's going to happen in the future, we have no choice but to do what we feel is right at the moment. If we find out later that we've made a mistake, then we'll cry and get angry. And then we'll think of the future again." She had given those words of advice to the Talia, the captain of the Minerva, but if the truth was told, she had not really followed her advice, herself.

She had certainly cried and gotten angry at the world when her boyfriend, Mu La Flaga, the pilot of the Strike Gundam had sacrificed his own life to save the Archangel from destruction, but if she had been real honest with herself, she hadn't moved on. She remembered that he had promised that he would come back to her, before the battle of Jachin Due, but he had died, and she couldn't move on, even though a year had passed. Sometimes she dreamed of how life would be if he was still alive, but that was the past and she needed to move in the future.

At the same time onboard an Earth battleship, Neo watched the broadcast of PLANT propaganda, of Lacus Clyne's charity concert. He could see that she was being used to encourage the citizens of PLANT to fight, but right now, his mission was to prevent ZAFT's new battleship, Minerva from wreaking havoc on Earth. _Once I crush that ship, the war should end and the Earth can be at peace. _

Minerva was headed off towards the Suez, hopefully they would have a chance to engage the Minerva once more, and this time they would bring more mobile suits, with better pilots. He had received intelligence about the mysterious mobile suit, it was the Saviour, another Gundam. There was something oddly familiar about that word, he felt as if he knew that someone had used it somewhere before, but he didn't know who or when or where.

Meanwhile, Stellar, Sting and Auel were resting in their cradles. The last battle had taken a lot of energy out of them and they needed time to refresh. He only hoped that they would be ready for the next engagement with the Minerva. Sting seemed to be a fairly good pilot, with a cool head, decent skills and that certain amount of arrogance and belief that good pilots needed. Auel always had something to prove to the others, slightly reckless but it could be forgiven for a pilot in an elite squad. Stellar, he was worried about ever since the beginning when Auel had used the block word on her, she began to show signs of mental frailty, and she seemed to have suddenly developed an unsuitable attachment to himself. Maybe after the war was done, he could sort that out.

On PLANT, Dearka, Yzak and Shiho prepared to launch to assist the ZAFT forces on Earth. These orders had come straight from Dullindal. As the ZAFT shuttle descended into the atmosphere, Dearka, resplendent in his green uniform, looked out the window; he wondered when he would meet Milliaria again. The last time they had been together, something could have happened, but they had parted without words, the battle had been fierce, his Buster had sustained grievous damage and he had returned to ZAFT, without a goodbye. Even though they had been in touch and he knew that she as now a war correspondent, long telephone calls and emails weren't the same as meeting face to face, to embrace each other again. Yzak and Shiho had been going out for a while now and Dearka felt a twinge of jealousy, as they cuddled up to each other on the shuttle down to Earth.

Milliaria meanwhile, sat in the helicopter of the news agency, snapping photographs of the war and its effects on the civilian population, freelancing even though her bosses had told her she should take photos of victories only. The photos of Earth Alliance victories were published daily while the ones showing devastation were suppressed. Currently, she was over southern Scandinavia, where the fighting was fiercest, local resistance groups, aided by ZAFT forces were trying to hold off the advance of Eurasia and Atlantic Federation forces. But they were outmatched, both in therms of numbers and in armaments, especially since the Federation had Orb Murasame Mobile Suits and Windams. She snapped photos of the devastation left by the latest attack. _As if they hadn't learned enough from the last war_. _It cost me almost everything_. She had heard that Cagalli had been kidnapped from Orb by Freedom, just after Orb had declared for the Earth Alliance, and that the Archangel had resurfaced. _I hope that Kira can stop this again, before we lose too many people close to our hearts._

Lacus was thinking much the same on board the Archangel as it sailed along the bottom of the ocean, careful to avoid detection by either Earth Alliance forces or ZAFT. Kira sat next to her on her bed, as he comforted her. The talked about ZAFT's fake Lacus and if it were possible that it had been ZAFT that had sent the assassins after her to kill her and cover their tracks. Lacus was annoyed at the fact that it had been announced that she was engaged to Athrun again, he must know that she was in love with Kira. That only left a few ugly possibilities, that Athrun had turned back, but it didn't seem likely, or that he was forced into it by Dullindal. Even though he was a member of the Clyne faction, Lacus remembered that her father had never trusted him much, due to his involvement in the Mendel Project. _Yes, he's definitely got something up his sleeve_. Kira, Murrue, Andy and herself all agreed that Dullindal was not as benign as he seemed. He had been developing new Gundams.

Suddenly the room filled with sound, "Condition Red, Condition Red, all pilots to the hold, all hands prepare for combat." Kira and Lacus both got up and exited, Kira going towards the hangar, Lacus up to the bridge. They kissed once, and then separated, running. On the bridge Murrue gave orders for the ship to surface, and prepare for combat. Lacus's voice rang through Kira's comm. channel, "Freedom, ready to launch."

He replied, "Kira Yamato, Freedom, away," as the right bay of the Archangel opened, and the catapult system ejected Freedom into the sky, as it activated its engines, flying out to meet the ZAFT forces.

"Cagalli Yura Athha, Strike Rouge, away," her voice rang over the comm. as Cagalli launched in her Gundam to join Kira in the battle. Strike Rouge catapulted out of the Archangel's hangar, it rose to join Freedom, as they detected mobile suit launches from the ZAFT ship.

"Prepare for anti-ship, anti-mobile suit combat, ready the Gottfried cannon, load the missiles, Fire," Murrue's voice rang clearly through the bridge as they surfaced to engage the ZAFT forces.

"Unknown mobile suits coming, wait… they are registering as Goufs," Andy called out on the bridge, as Lacus communicated to both Kira and Cagalli, giving them the battle plan. Freedom and Strike Rouge stayed close to the Archangel as it ploughed on towards the enemy ZAFT ship, Gottfried cannons and Neidhart missiles firing.

The enemy Gouf Mobile Suits made to engage the Archangel and its two Gundams. Freedom and Strike Rouge fired its cannons at the enemy Goufs, destroying some as they came on, and then Kira saw the leader, one of the Goufs was a orangey-yellow, carrying a sword. Kira commed to Cagalli, "I'll take the leader, keep the others off the Archangel."

"Yes, little brother," Cagalli replied, as she fired the Strike Rouge's laser cannon at another of the enemy Goufs, turning it into smithereens. Kira's Freedom fired its laser cannon as the Gouf Ignited approached, and he flew away, keeping distance between him and Gouf which seemed intent on close combat. Changing his tactics, Kira wheeled Freedom around, drawing its beam saber as he rushed in towards the Gouf. His saber clashed against the Gouf's sword, producing a cascade of light. _When I beat him, the others will run away, and then we'll have to move our position, we can't let either ZAFT or the EA find out where we are._

Meanwhile, Cagalli's Strike Rouge stood on top of the Archangel, and fired repeatedly, taking out the enemy Goufs, as Archangel engaged the enemy carrier in combat. The Gottfried cannon's green beams flew across the gap between the two capital ships. Kira's fingers tapped over the keyboards and moved the joystick like a maestro, as the Freedom performed next to impossible feats in combat against the Gouf Ignited. The Gouf's pilot was good, but simply not good enough. Kira had come close to slipping through the Gouf Ignited's guard a few times already, as they twisted and turned through the clouds, having resumed ranged combat once again.

The lone helicopter flew low to the ground, as they saw flashes of a battle out the right window. Milliaria quickly took some snapshots of the battle, as the helicopter retreated from the battle, as it approached where it happened to cross near their flight path. Stray laser beams nearly hit the helicopter. Kira saw a helicopter near the fight, as he attempted to steer the fight away from the helicopter, the pilot of the enemy Gouf's shots went awfully close to the retreating helicopter. Kira entered Seed Mode, _it has to end before any innocent's get hurt_. His eyes went almost blank as the Seed within him activated, his flying became even more desperate and more intricate. He slashed down with his beam saber, cutting the left arm of the enemy Gouf off, followed up with a wicked parry, which forced the enemy back, and then he charged and riposted the next attack that the Gouf Ignited gave, sending the enemy spinning down, where it exploded into a shower of fragments.

Unfortunately, the exploding fragments happened to hit the helicopter in the rotor stopping it, sending it into freefall towards the ocean, the door ripped open as Milliaria was sucked out, and then the helicopter exploded.

Milliaria had thought that she was going to die when the helicopter's back rotor was hit by shrapnel from the exploding Gouf Ignited, as it fell she saw her life flash before her eyes, the first years on Helipolis, the group of friends she had, and then the images of the war, the fateful day when Helipolis was destroyed and her journey to adulthood began, she remembered volunteering to become part of the Earth Alliance, the tragedy at Alaska, Tolle's death…and then trying to kill Dearka and then warming up to him, she didn't know what to think about him, she had felt something there near the end of the first war, but circumstance dictated that they go their separate ways, forever, now that she felt that she was plunging towards her death. She wished that it could be different, that she could try to make a relationship with Dearka but it seemed as if fate would intervene.

Then she felt the hard jarring pain on her back as she landed on something, she looked and saw the hands of the Freedom holding her up, as it flew back to the Archangel. _Kira_, she thought, _you've saved me_.

With the battle now done, ad the remaining ZAFT forces broken, the Freedom and the Strike Rouge landed within Archangel's hold. Milliaria jumped off the Freedom's hands onto the floor. She saw Kira exit the Freedom and she cried out, "Kira. Thank You for saving me."

Kira turned around as he heard someone call his name. It was Milliaria, "Milliaria, you were in the helicopter?" he asked, as she ran up to him and hugged him. Milliaria followed him out of the hold and into the familiar hallways of the Archangel. As they approached the bridge as the Archangel slipped away, sailing for a new hiding place.

Milliaria followed Kira towards the bridge of the Archangel and inside there were more surprises, "Murrue-san, Andy-san, Lacus, how are you? What are you doing in Scandinavia; last I heard Orb had joined the Earth Alliance. Then Cagalli walked in and saw Milliaria and they greeted each other warmly.

"We're officially not part of Orb anymore," Cagalli explained, "some of the other families tried to force me to marry, and then they made Orb part of the Earth Alliance against my wishes."

"The Earth Alliance is seeking to crush any resistance against it, to make all neutral countries part of it, Orb was the first but it certainly won't be the last. We're helping local resistance in North Africa and Scandinavia retain independence," Kira explained as he and Milliaria sat in the officer's lounge. Murrue came to join them and spoke to Milliaria, "we can drop you off when we next surface, if that's okay with you."

Milliaria faced a decision, part of her felt like rejoining the crew again, she knew that somehow, they would meet Dearka again, but her new job was important too. She decided to ask if she could re-volunteer to help on the Archangel, "Captain Ramius, what would you say if I said that I wanted to volunteer to help the Archangel again?"

Murrue and Kira gaped at Milliaria when they heard her last statement. "We would be honoured if you rejoined the Archangel. We're actually short of crew at the moment so every extra person helps," Murrue answered. Andy joined them in the lounge and sat down next to Kira, "Milliaria is rejoining the crew," Murrue explained to Andy, "that should free you to pilot the Murasame Gundam, you've had made for you," with a small smile on her face.

"Welcome back, Milliaria. I think Lacus would take the job of XO, and Milliaria goes back to CIC," Andy said, happy that he could finally have a chance to test the custom suit he had Morgenraete had made for him.

"Is that okay with you Milli," Kira asked.

"It's fine, it's a job that I can do, but what about Lacus? Will she agree?" Milliaria asked Kira, knowing that she would take the job currently being held by his girlfriend. She didn't notice that Lacus had entered the officer's lounge looking for Kira and had overheard the last part of the conversation.

"What will I agree to?" Lacus said, in her usual happy tone, now that she wasn't so focused on the PLANT fakeup of her, as she slid into the seat next to Kira.

"Becoming Executive Officer, Milliaria volunteered to rejoin the crew, so I thought that she would have her old job back and that we could promote you and Andy can pilot that Gundam he had Morgenraete build for him," Murrue answered.

"Of course I'll agree, it means a promotion doesn't it," Lacus replied, laughing because she knew that on this ship, there wasn't any pay anyway, they were doing what they could for the ideal of peace, her duties would change slightly but she had done some of them before when she had commanded the Eternal in the last war, she was sure that she could handle the job. "Welcome back Milliaria, this time I want to get to know you better, our last time together was really short."

The old gang was slowly reforming, coming back together again, those that had saved humanity the last time; it seemed as if they were going to have to save humanity once more.

_A/N: I made Andy's Mobile Suit a Gundam for the sake of it. A ship as venerable and prestigious as the Archangel should only carry Gundams after all (hehe), though I heard it was a custom painted Murasame, well until they actually ID it in the episodes, it can be a Gundam. I wonder how the hell he'll pilot one-armed, but for the sake of this story, I'll just assumed that it is full prosthetic ala Star Wars. And if Andy is going to pilot who will take his place on the Archangel as XO, so I thought that I might as we bring Milly back this way and promote Lacus. Well, the old gang are getting back together again. So Cool! You should catch onto what I'm going on about by now...Next Chapter: Resistance Fighters, mostly with the Minerva._

_Command of the Archangel(Main Characters)_

_Captain: Murrue Ramius  
__Executive Officer: Lacus Clyne  
__CIC: Milliaria Haww  
__Pilots: Kira Yamato (Freedom), Cagalli Yura Athha (Strike Rouge), Andrew Waltfield (Murasame)_

_Command of the Minerva_

_Captain: Talia Gladys  
__Executive Officer: Arthur Trine  
__CIC: Meyrin Hawke  
__Pilots: Athrun Zala (Saviour), Shinn Asuka (Impulse), Rey Za Burrel (Blaze ZAKU Phantom), Lunamaria Hawke (Gunner ZAKU Warrior)_

_The Phantom Pain/81st Independent Squadron_

_Colonel Neo Lorrnoke (Custom Windam)  
__Auel Neider (Abyss)  
__Stellar Loussier (Gaia)  
__Sting Oakley (Chaos)_


	6. Chapter 5: Resistance Fighters

Chapter 5: Resistance fighters

_A/N, POLL: With Ep20-23 previews spoilers, the direction I took it will be different to the one the series takes…so it will be AU. Unless you guys want me to stay true to the story in which case I have to do some serious re-writing. At least let me know your thoughts…(eg. I offed Heine quickly and don't have the Minerva v Archangel that is hinted at in the spoilers, Also the way I had Shinn and Stellar meeting is different to what they said.) So let me know what you guys think._

The Minerva flew through Eurasia and northern Africa, flitting around battlefields like an annoying insect, striking at EA bases with the help of local resistance and then pulling back. Shinn and Athrun had had a heartfelt talk about the last war and Shinn now at least seemed more stable and less focused on the past, less focused on Mayu and his family. His grief for them was still strong, he knew it would never go away but it no longer ruled his life. He was a soldier, not a boy anymore and as Athrun said, a soldier follows his orders and does his job so that someone somewhere else is safe.

Missions were executed almost daily, as the Saviour and Impulse bought hope to the hearts of countries wishing to remain neutral in the new war. 81st Independent squadron had engaged them several times, each time ending in a stalemate, as the Minerva or the JP Jones had withdrawn when the battle had gone against them, they were no closer to recapturing the stolen Gundams, the 81st no closer to destroying or capturing the Impulse or Saviour. Athrun had piloted and led impressively, and Shinn skill improved greatly and he seemed to be learning really well under Athrun's tuition.

Rey and Lunamaria provided able support in their Zaku Mobile Suits, but the majority of the kills were chalked up by the two Gundam pilots. They had lost count of the amount of times they had battled the Earth Alliance military, though strictly in defensive roles, defending against both Earth Alliance probes and full-scale attacks. Even after ZAFT support had landed on Earth, the Earth Alliance was still bullying its way through the remaining territory on Earth, only Scandinavia and the Equatorial Union, with the help of ZAFT troops in Carpentaria held out against Eurasia and the Atlantic Federation, the two main movers in the Earth Alliance.

Quiet whispers about Blue Cosmos controlling the military again had reached the ears of both the crews of the Archangel and Minerva, and that forebode nothing but trouble. The Blue Cosmos had been troubling last war, now it was stirring sentiment against Co-ordinators. Talia and Athrun were having a conference between the FAITH officers on the Minerva, after Heine had appeared with new orders, but he had disappeared onto another ship after a heated argument with Athrun and apparently, according to intel was dead after intel recovered wreckage of a battle near Scandinavia. Apparently, their ship had been ambushed by a Gundam. _It is most likely those Earth Alliance pilots. Heine was always too arrogant for his own good, and there was no way his skill level was anywhere near good enough to handle a Gundam in anything less than another Gundam. Still it is another soldier dead for a war that we shouldn't really be fighting_.

The Chaos, Gaia and Abyss have to be taken down soon," Talia said, "they wreak as much havoc as we do and we have to oppose them however we can, otherwise they would overrun the neutral nations. "However, even with ZAFT forces landing quite frequently, we don't have enough firepower here to hold off the Earth Alliance forever, especially if their Gundams keep on ripping through our mobile suits."

"Then we shall have to take the fight to them, and hope we win, it may be risky but in the long-run it would be worth it," Athrun replied.

Rumours of the Minerva appearing in two places at the same time had reached the JP Jones. Neo stood on the deck worried, there definitely weren't two Minerva's out there. He studied photos that had been captured by the army. Either Minerva had two paint jobs or someone had ZAFT had dropped a second battleship onto Earth, but intel had not indicated that there was a second battleship being built on PLANT. He looked at the second ship, the white one, it looked oddly familiar. He frowned, sometimes certain images and pictures would feel different, he felt as if something was missing, it was like a sixth sense. But he didn't have time to worry about that yet, Minerva needed to be taken down, and intel indicated that they had headed for the battlezone near Scandanavia.

He had enough worries already; Stellar was becoming more unstable and Jibril was becoming more insistent about the quick destruction of the Minerva. He wished things were easier, but the Minerva was in the way of peace or so Jibril had said.

The JP Jones sailed on towards the warzone. Back on the Minerva, Talia and Athrun were still discussing the plan to trap the enemy Gundams and destroy them. An attack would most likely be the easiest way to destroy them but it would also be the riskiest. If something went wrong, the tables could easily be turned against them.

"We won't have many reinforcements, they only have old mobile suits and tanks, it will be up to us to provide most of the firepower to destroy the Earth Alliance mobile suits," Athrun said. Talia agreed and decided that they would have to work up a plan.

Outside he met Shinn, who had just found out that Athrun was engaged to Lacus Clyne again, something nagged him about Lacus, and then he realised, he had seen her on Orb at the monument with another guy. "Athrun, I have something important to tell you," Shinn said as he gestured for Athrun to follow him. Athrun followed him and they found the pilot lounge empty. Athrun sat down and Shinn took a chair opposite him, Shinn whispered to Athrun, "I think your fiancée is cheating on you with some other guy, I saw her on Orb while we were there with another man." Athrun was a bit shocked, he knew that his 'engagement' was only a fake, but he realised that he couldn't say anything about that to Shinn, but more importantly he realised that Shinn had seen Kira.

Cagalli sat in the room that she shared with Kira and Lacus, who were both away on duty. _Athrun, where are you? I wish that I could hold you in my arms again. I wish I could marry you right now, I wish that you hadn't gone back to PLANT? If only I could tell you now, how deep the love I feel for you._ She wondered what Athrun was doing in PLANT right now, she hoped that he hadn't given up on her after she had agreed to marry Yuuna. She had been saved of that folly by her brother but she had also lost Orb, her responsibility to the Earth Alliance. _I only hope that the citizens or Orb are now safe_.

The Archangel sailed under the sea, heading towards the next battlefield, the next warzone. The crew had decided to go around Gibraltar and North Africa, helping the neutral nations stay neutral. The Freedom and the Archangel had become almost famous for their valour in battle. The Freedom, Strike Rouge and Murasame cut swathes through Earth Alliance Mobile Suits and Mobile Armours, however, they couldn't be everywhere at once, a lot of the times they made inroads into Earth Alliance forces only to have the Earth Alliance attack another front at the same time. They also had to watch out for ZAFT forces that were around. They had destroyed a ZAFT dropship in the previous weeks that had happened to have caught them on sensors and had attacked.

Milliaria had settled once again into the combat role, she wondered about Dearka a lot of the time now, she hoped that they could be together again. _What are you doing right now? I hope you're safe and that we'll see one another again._ Dearka, Yzak and Shiho stood in the base at Gibraltar. Gibraltar was under attack from Earth Alliance and Blue Cosmos went around fomenting trouble for the citizens.

"Yzak, it is troubling isn't it?" Dearka, in a voice more serious than usual, asked as Yzak came striding out of the base commander's office, an angrier look on his face than usual.

"Yes, the Blue Cosmos bastards keep stirring up trouble and suicide bomb themselves at the base every so often. But what worries me more is the Eurasia forces headed for Gibraltar. And we've heard nothing from the Minerva, except that it is near Scandinavia, working with local resistance against Earth Alliance forces," Yzak replied, "The stolen Mobile Suits are also around somewhere creating trouble for us." An unbidden thought came to Dearka's mind, _what was Chairman Dullindal thinking when he created those Gundams, and then to let them be stolen so easily?_

Suddenly, the base sirens began to blare out the alarm, Yzak and Dearka ran off towards the mobile suit hangar ready to fight whatever approached. Yzak and Dearka both launched in their Zaku's as Jule squad rose to engage the incoming Windams and Dagger suits of the Earth Alliance.

Yzak lead the Zaku squadron towards the enemy, unleashing the Slash Zaku's laser polearm, slashing at the enemy mobile suits, destroying them. He flew in a controlled fury, Shiho on his wing, as they lead the attack on the Eurasia forces. _Die! You stupid invaders! Get out of our territory! _His blue Zaku twisted through the air, destroying Earth Alliance Windams and Daggers, killing their pilots. He deftly avoided the laser shots that came from the enemy.

The battle over Gibraltar was furious; ZAFT Zakus and Earth Windams engaged each other in a dazzling display of light. Yzak and Shiho racked up kills in close combat, while Dearka lead the last line of defence and picked off any of the Windams that made runs on the base. _Blast! _Dearka thought as some of the earth battleships started launching long range missiles at the base, "Zakus, take down the missiles," he ordered as he launched into the air, shooting at the long-range ballistic missiles. He separated his gun into two smaller guns and started firing at the incoming missiles with green laser shots, destroying them, causing them to explode prematurely, covering the sky with a myriad of orange-red against the little blue sky that was left where there wasn't any fighting.

Dearka and Yzak's Zakus's twisted around in the air, flying with grace and agility as they showed the Earth Alliance the skill of the pilots who had survived Jachin Due. Even though ZAFT Zaku's fell less often than the EA's Windams and Daggers, ZAFT was slowly but surely losing the fight as the sheer numbers of EA troops started to overwhelm the brave ZAFT defenders. Dearka watched as one of the Zakus next near him blew up spraying shards everywhere, he only hoped that the people on the ground were safe.

"Damn!" Yzak's voice came through the comm. "there's too many of them, we can't hold the base much longer, there are too many of those bastards."

The evacuation order for Gibraltar came over the comm. system of all of the remaining ZAFT forces, as the Earth Alliance ships and mobile suits continued to rain destruction on the base. ZAFT Zaku's began to retreat to nearby carriers which were launching from the Gibraltar base. Yzak, Dearka and Shiho landed on the battleship as it left the now burning Gibraltar base behind.

Back on Orb, in the secret Morgenraete base, unknown to the Orb government, Erica and Colonel Kisaka worked on new Gundams for the Archangel, based off the designs in the last war. A long ranged sniper model with mirage colloid, perfect for infiltration and assassination, combining elements of the Blitz and Buster Gundams. A second incorporating Eurasia's Artemis shield tech combined to Duel's hand-to-hand capabilities, creating an ultimate duellist Gundam suited for close-ranged combat and specialising in anti-Gundam combat. A third unit based off the Providence was also nearing the end of design stage. They had kept tabs on the Orb government using some of the backdoors that had been installed, they knew that Cagalli had been kidnapped by Freedom and the Archangel, which they had refitted was now away from Orb. They would arrange some way to deliver the new Gundams to the Archangel. Pilots would be harder to find, but having more units allowed them greater flexibility in their mission.

Neo stood on the bridge of the JP Jones, as the Earth Alliance forces approached Scandinavia. The Earth Alliance formation approached the coast of Scandinavia, ready to launch their Daggers and Windams and the three Gundams. As they moved into bombardment range the carriers stopped. "Launch all mobile suits, prepare to attack," the orders rang clearly through the Earth Alliance's comm. systems.

"Sting Oakley, Chaos, away!" The Chaos Gundam launched straight into the air, joining the launching Windams and Daggers.

"Auel Neider, Abyss, launch," The Abyss Gundam dropped into the ocean turning into submarine mode, ready to take out any under sea defenders.

"Stellar Loussier, Gaia, go," The Gaia turned quickly into quadruped mode as it led the charge by impossibly gliding over the water. Stellar concentrated on breaching the first line of defence and getting onto earth.

"Neo Lorrnoke, Windam, launching," Neo launched his custom Windam to lead the assault on Scandinavia. He expected that the Minerva would turn up, he opened a private comm. channel to his three pilots, "Expect that the Minerva and those annoying Gundams will come." He personally looked forward to battling against the kid in white again.

"Condition Red, Condition Red, All pilots to the hangar," Meyrin's voice rang out clearly through the bridge of the Minerva whilst it rested in the docks of Scandinavia. They had been busy helping local resistance against the Earth Alliance on both the land-based front and the sea-based front. Shinn, Athrun, Lunamaria and Rey all rushed to the hangar and entered the cockpits of their respective mobile suits.

"Athrun Zala, Saviour, away," Athrun launched into the sky.

"Shinn Asuka, Core Splendour, launch," Shinn launched into the sky, the other parts of Impulse launching after him, combining with the Core Splendour to form the Impulse.

"Lunamaria Hawke, Zaku, go" the red Gunner Zaku Warrior launched out of Minerva's hangar,

"Rey Za Burrel, Zaku, away," the white Blaze Zaku Phantom rose to join the battle.

The sun shone brightly in the clear blue sky, little knowing that the sky would soon be painted red and green with blood and laserfire. The Earth Alliance fleet readied its weapons, as the Minerva prepared to shield its bridge and prepared for yet another battle, another graveyard.

Athrun would lead the mobile suit corps of Scandinavia and ZAFT forces, while Shinn stayed to defend the shore from any raiding parties which got past, with Lunamaria and Rey to assist him. He gave Shinn command of the three ZAFT suits, Shinn was maturing and Athrun felt that he now knew that he couldn't go rushing out, innocent lives depended on him staying put and following the orders he had been given.

Shinn stood on the coast, whilst Lunamaria and Rey, all in their mobile suits. _Athrun assigned me this job, knowing that I would try my hardest to protect the powerless civilians and that I would never leave them behind. That seems to be a sign of distrust, a lack of confidence by then why did he leave me in charge? He probably doesn't want me to rush into a trap like last time, even though I would never ever admit it to his face, his arguments had logic, I had run into more trouble than I bargained for…I wonder who the Earth Alliance commander, the pilot of that purple Windam is? For a pilot of a mobile suit he could hold his own mostly, against a Gundam, certainly his situational awareness is good. I'd like to meet that man and ask him how he does it…_Shinn's thought process was interrupted as battle alerts came through. He opened a comm. channel to Lunamaria and Rey, "alright, our mission is to destroy anything that comes too close to the coast. Got it?" He received two acknowledgments from the other pilots and then settled his mind and prepared for the battle.

_A/N: So there are new Gundams on the way, what do you guys think of my designs. I mean in there are no shielded Gundams for some reason, even though I think shields may work better especially against beam sabers that are favoured inclose range combat, and combining the elements of Blitz and Buster makes for a perfect hidden sniper_._ I decided to finish chapter five here. The next Chapter the Battle of Scandinavia. Sorry for the lack of Archangel._


	7. Chapter 6: Battle of Scandanavia

Chapter 6: Battle of Scandinavia

_A/N: Yeah! Thanks for the votes…I'll keep it my way…and yet Fukada can make another slip up and change the story on us. (And also it is speculated that Stellar may lose her memory...but I'll stand by my way) Anyway, keep R and R ing._

**_Asga, Angel of Dreams: I really want to thank you guys for reading the story so far._**

**_Chaosdragon: Thanks for the review...but unfortunately my knowledge of Gundam extends really only to Seed, Seed Destinyand Wing...being a Star Wars fan also helps but their shields probably don't take as much power...just go with me on this one._**

With all the mobile suits launched, the Earth Alliance attack began in earnest. Gaia, gliding over the water, _Neo, I will get that guy… for you_, Stellar thought as she saw the Impulse on the coast, she charged straight towards it ready to destroy it utterly.

"Shield the bridge," Talia's voice rang out through the bridge of the Minerva, as it launched out from the drydock, "ready the Tristan and Isolde, load the Parsfeld missiles, fire on my mark." The Minerva leading the vanguard of the Scandinavian fleet, started to engage the nearest Earth Alliance carrier in combat, "Mark," Talia called out as the Minerva launched its blistering assault on the Earth Alliance carriers.

"Incoming missiles," Arthur's voice, from the Executive Officer's station, "commencing evasive actions," The Minerva sailed to port as the Earth Alliance's reply came streaming towards the Scandinavian fleet.

Shinn's Impulse, along with Lunamaria's and Rey's Zakus stood on the coast destroying Windams that came too close. He saw the Gaia bound across the bay, coming right at him, he drew his beam saber as the Gaia transformed into Gundam mode, charging straight at Shinn ignoring the other suits, and drew its own beam saber, "you, you I'll get you," Stellar screamed as she and Shinn began to fight.

"Rey, Lunamaria; try to get a crippling shot on the Gaia while I fend it off," he ordered, "but make sure you keep the other enemy mobile suits from landing, that's our main priority. The Gaia seems to only be intent on fighting me so I'll try to keep it away from the civilians." Rey and Lunamaria fired their beam cannons at the enemy Windams and Daggers in the sky, scoring hits, producing some brilliant explosions while they moved to avoid any return fire. Shinn and

Meanwhile, Athrun lead ZAFT Zakus and Goufs, and Scandinavian Astray's into the fight against the opposing Chaos, Windams and Daggers. Saviour led off the fight against the Chaos, _so it is them again_, as he also saw the purple Windam from the battle at the secret base. Athrun fired his laser cannons at the oncoming Windams, as he saw the enemy firing their own salvo. Explosions shook the sky as both sides took losses. Chaos and the custom Windam wheeled away as Athrun's squad blazed through the Earth Alliance forces. Athrun engaged the two mobile suits in a running battle as the other ZAFT Zaku's and Earth Alliance Windams and Dagger's engaged in a deadly dance around the battlefield.

Neo lead his Windam and Dagger squadrons in the fight against Athrun's forces. _So the Saviour is here, that means ZAFT's other ace-kun is also here, I look forward to battling again. _With Stellar's help he had almost taken down the Impulse only to be thwarted at the last minute by the Saviour and its pilot, who also flew like an ace, as more recent engagements had proven. It seemed to Neo that it was the pilot of the Saviour who led the mobile suit pilots on the Minerva and he had a good grasp of tactics unlike the hotheaded pilot of the Impulse. _Which just means that I'll have to fly even better; even if it is impossible; I can do it._ _Once that Minerva and its mobile suits are gone, victory should belong to us._ He led the Windam Squadron off the JP Jones and other squads off other battleships in the attack against Scandinavia, which had been holding out against Earth Alliance calls to arms. With the recent Central Eurasian rebellion put down, Lord Jibril had initiated the next step to Earth Alliance victory over PLANT.

Sailing underwater towards the Scandinavian fleet, Auel laughed as he saw that the Scandinavian fleet was hard pressed to field many submarines or underwater mobile suits. He charged straight towards them, intent on destroying them, _I'll show Neo how good I can be_.

"Abyss has been detected underwater and heading straight for the fleet," Arthur said, as he looked at the radar, worried that the Abyss would trouble them as it did in the battle at the secret base near Carpentaria.

"Relay the order for Lunamaria and Rey to prepare for the Archangel gambit," Talia ordered. She knew that removing Shinn's support could be dangerous for the civilians on the ground but if the Scandinavian or ZAFT fleet was destroyed, the civilians would be helpless anyway.

Lunamaria and Rey returned into the hangar of the Minerva, to be outfitted with underwater weapons. _I hope that this time we can beat that Abyss,_ Lunamaria thought as they launched out of the hangar after the refit.

Auel rushed straight for the Minerva, as he bought his Gundam to bear. "Archangel gambit commence," Talia ordered, as the Minerva suddenly lifted from the water, "Brace for impact," she said as it inverted and Rey and Lunamaria's Zaku's lifted off, ready to jump underwater, "Isolde, Parsfeil fire on my mark," Talia ordered as the guns aimed straight at Auel who had transformed into Gundam mode, reducing his manoeuvring ability, "Fire." The Minerva fired its cannons into the water, as Lunamaria and Rey dropped into the water, damaging Auel's Gundam forcing him to surface and run towards the land as water got into the systems. Neo, piloting the Windam observed the Minerva's inversion; _that seems so familiar._

Lunamaria and Rey chased Auel all the way to the coast. Meanwhile, Shinn and Stellar were occupied by the battle of their lives as they continued to attack one another furiously, _I will kill you_, Stellar thought grim determination on her face, as the Gaia continued its saber barrage on the defending Impulse. Shinn counter-attacked with his shield scoring a blow on the Gaia which pushed it back. He had almost no time to recover as the Gaia pressed the attack, _What is with this pilot,_ Shinn thought as he defended the flurry of blows that Stellar's Gaia rained upon his Impulse. He saw numerous openings for a counter-attack but the fury of Gaia's blows kept him on the back foot.

Athrun transformed into jet mode as he held Chaos and the purple Windam at bay. He looped around in a narrow arc as he came on firing, the purple Windam dodged whilst the Chaos blocked with its shield. The purple Windam though less heavily armed had a better pilot than the Chaos did, that pilot flew almost as good as he did, if not better, Athrun had to admit to himself as he gave chase, firing, forcing the Windam to dodge under the clouds. He whipped around back into Gundam form, and turned to engage the Chaos, which decided to jettison its pods to add an extra element of attack.

Meanwhile, Athrun's Zakus, Goufs and Astrays were slowly beating the Earth Alliance Daggers and Windams. Neo rose out of the clouds into that battle, firing, destroying the Scandinavian forces. "Form up on me, Sting keep that pilot busy," Neo ordered as his mobile suits began fight with more co-ordination and began to slowly turn the tide towards an Earth Alliance victory. His forces criss-crossed over the enemy forces utilising a slashing attack, catching the allied forces by surprise, destroying some of them, taking no losses in return. He watched as two flights of his mobile suits engaged the enemy, one obscured by the other. The first flight broke away and predictably the guns followed them, not knowing that the second flight came blazing through the gap firing repeatedly at enemy gun installations.

The Minerva and the Earth Alliance carrier fleet traded blow for blow, the Minerva rocked as blasts from the Earth Alliance carriers hit it. "Fire," Talia ordered, as the Scandinavian ships returned fire obliterating a few of the Earth Alliance carriers. The Earth Alliance response similarly destroyed some of the defenders.

Dearka stood on the prow of the ZAFT dropship which was currently powering up towards Scandanvia to join the Minerva and help sure up the Scandinavian Kingdom's defence to stay independent. _Milliaria, I wonder where you are? I want to see you again._ He saw Yzak and Shiho acting all couply and a twinge of jealousy filled his heart, he realised that he wanted to be with Milly, he wished that he could hold her in his arms. He hoped that the small flame that had been kindled between them before Jachin Due was still burning.

Lunamaria and Rey, now fighting on land, chased the fleeing Abyss over an island. Their Zakus traded blows with Abyss. Lunamaria executed a drop-kick manoeuvre as Rey attacked from the front with his laser; she came from below, lasers firing at full blast. The Abyss barely dodged that attack, by shifting to the left and Rey came full-on attacking with its beam axe. The Abyss could do nothing but block the blows that Lunamaria and Rey were attacking it with. Coming from both sides made it hard for the Abyss to unleash its lasers, it could only attack one at a time leaving it vulnerable from backstabbing by the other unit. Rey looped his Zaku around and fired again, twisting away from Abyss's scythe as Abyss tried to charge it.

Neo lead the Earth's mobile suits like an expert, taking out all of Athrun's reinforcements as Sting kept Athrun busy. _Blast!_ Athrun thought as he saw his reinforcements being decimated by the superior tactics of the enemy commander. He knew he had to go to help his forces but the Chaos and its two shoulder pods were keeping him rather busy. He dived down towards the fight hoping to swoop on some of the enemy mobile suits, especially that purple Windam flown by the enemy commander.

However, he was forced to abort the run as Chaos flew in to attack. Sting flew with all his will and strength against the Saviour. He knew his mission was to prevent the Saviour from attacking any of the weaker mobile suits, for the attack on Scandinavia to succeed he would need to severely damage the Saviour, if not destroy it.

_Good! The battle is going just as I expected. The Saviour and the Impulse are quite occupied and unable to prey on the weaker suits. That should give them enough time to break through the coastal defences. Sting and Stellar are doing quite well. _Neo led his Windam squadron in a slashing run on the coastal defences, peeling away from the battle between Chaos and Saviour for the moment.

_Idiot!_ Shinn thought to himself as the Gaia scored a hit against his Impulse. The Gaia's attacks became more and more furious as the battle went on. Shinn decided he would have to counter-attack with more fury than the pilot of the Gaia could withstand. He brought his beam saber to parry and then tried to riposte using his shield to knock the Gaia backwards. Shinn pressed the attack, unleashing a furious flurry of blows. He was too busy to notice that the beachhead had been breached by the Earth Alliance, such was the intensity of Gaia's attack.

Stellar wheeled back as the Impulse started to press its attack. _That guy, I have to kill him, for Neo, I will kill him_. She redoubled her efforts to attack as Shinn's Impulse pressed its own attack. Their beam sabers met in a clash, discharging energy, a brilliant light, she pushed harder on the controls as the Gaia pressed forwards slowly driving the Impulse backwards.

Shinn feeling that the pilot of the Gaia had redoubled her efforts, concentrated harder, pushing harder, forcing the Gaia back, he saw a gap in the defence so he attacked, driving his saber into the Gaia's shoulder, forcing the Gaia to jump back, Shinn pressed the attack, charging and attacking. He needed to finish things quickly, his power was down to yellow, but he was sure he could finish things before he ran out of power, and he knew that the Gaia must surely be running out of power too, he pressed his attack on, ever forward, starting to score hits.

Saviour and Chaos continued to dance around in the air, fighting, shooting at each other. Chaos's shoulder pods continuing to keep Athrun distracted from the fight, coming in from unexpected angles, the pilot of the Chaos had also improved a lot, since the fight at Junius Seven. Earth's mobile suits continued to push the attack as their numerical and tactical superiority started to take its toll. The first Earth Alliance suits had started to breach the coastal defences.

Athrun fought even harder as he saw the Scandinavian defenders slowly begin to crumble under the renewed attack. Tanks exploded on the shore as the Earth Alliance forces pushed into the docks. Athrun wheeled his Saviour around to attack the Chaos. _I have to take this Gundam down soon, otherwise we're going to lose._

Shinn and Stellar kept on fighting, even though their power levels were beginning to go critical. Stellar pushed herself even harder, more desperate, she gambled and it succeeded, with a stunning uppercut she managed to force Shinn over the edge of the fjord, sending his suit tumbling down, she jumped down after it, using the last of her suits power to fire at the Impulse, tearing sections from its body as its phase-shift armour failed.

Shinn could do nothing but eject, as the Impulse plunged to its destruction. He landed deep in the fjord and made to escape. The Gaia was so intent on blasting the smithereens out of the Impulse, Stellar didn't notice Shinn slip into the forest, only later to be ambushed by Earth Alliance's landing army.

Meanwhile, the battle of Scandinavia was effectively over, the Earth Alliance's sheer numbers wreaking havoc on the Scandinavian port, the Minerva was forced to withdraw, picking up the Saviour and its two Zakus.

"Where is the Impulse," Athrun asked as he docked in the Minerva. The Impulse had been gone since the beginning of the fight. He had tried to warn Shinn not to be too reckless before and it seemed as if Shinn had taken the advice to heart to the point where he had considered Shinn a friend, _Shit_, it was just like losing Nicol again, but Shinn was only missing, he hadn't seen Shinn die like he had seen Nicol die. _Hopefully Shinn went to ground and is safe_.

"It was fighting the Gaia and the Gaia seemed to have won," Meyrin replied, sad that one of their pilots had been lost, it had been a hard battle that had cost too much in the end. Athrun annoyed, landed the Saviour in the hold of the Minerva. _Shinn should have been good enough to take the Gaia out as well_.

Shinn was marched onto the JP Jones by the Earth Alliance army, who had captured him. He was brought to Neo, "this is one of the ZAFT pilots that survived, you wished to interrogate them, Colonel," the Captain of the soldiers said.

"Yes, put him in the brig for now, I need to debrief the pilots," Neo replied, as Shinn was lead away into the brig. Neo was satisfied, the battle had gone his way and the prize that they now had in this ZAFT pilot was an added bonus.

"Auel, Sting, Stellar, come to my office now," Neo ordered, as the three Gundam pilots followed him into his personal office. "You all did well," he said, as the pilots rested on the lounges, "Stellar, good job in taking the Impulse down."

"Neo, thank you…" Stellar replied, happy for the praise from Neo, her infatuation for him deepened.

"Sting, thanks for holding off the Saviour, you did your job properly allowing our troops to get through without too many losses," Neo said, giving praise where it was due

"Too bad I couldn't take that Saviour out," Sting replied, exhausted from the battle with the Saviour, it had required all of his concentration and willpower to keep up with the Saviour.

"Auel…you did okay there, though the Minerva came up with an interesting tactic to flush you out of the water," Neo stated, "you'll get something big for me next time right?"

'Of course I will," Auel replied, "I'm too powerful for anything they can put underwater."

"Alright, I think it is time for your rest, return to the Lab, you know where. Dismissed," Neo commanded, as he allowed his pilots to go. As soon as they left, he pulled off his mask, set it down on the lounge and lay down to think. He mulled over the battle and the interesting tactic that he had seen executed by the Minerva, it had seemed familiar at the time. Sometimes he felt as if he had seen some of these things, had heard of some words before but they hadn't been in what Lord Jibril had provided. He sat in his office lost in his thoughts when he remembered that the ZAFT pilot had to be questioned. Donning his mask again he exited his room, the door clicking shut behind him, he walked to the brig, little knowing what would happen.

_A/N: I'll try to have some Seed Mode next chapter. Anyway, does anyone know if Star Wars Lightsabers existed first of Gundam beam sabers? What will happen to Shinn? Will anyone ever see Neo unmasked? Read the next chapter: Enter Destiny Gundam._

_Poll: Should I give Stellar a Seed or not? Please tell me when you guys review. Thanks._


	8. Chapter 7: Enter Destiny Gundam

Chapter 7: Enter Destiny Gundam

**Asga, AngelofDreams: Thanks for your continuous reviews of the story. Hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**Lodis Lord: It will be finished...and there will be no yaoi. **

_A/N: Read and review please. It has been fun so far writing this but with University having started again, I will have less time to update sonew chapterswon't be so frequent. Anyway enjoy this chapter._

Stellar wondered into the brig, she enjoyed walking around the ship, enjoying its sights when she saw Shinn, she recognised him from Armoury One, and he had groped her breasts. She took her knife out and prepared to confront him, "you, you groped me you pervert," she screamed at him, drawing her knife to stab him.

Shinn saw the blonde haired girl come towards him with a knife, he recognised her from the day on Armoury One when she had walked in his way and he had accidentally touched her, "Hey stop that, it was an accident, I'm sorry if I hurt you in any way," he apologised, but she still tried to stab him through the bars enraged as she was. He knew that he was captured by those who had stolen the Gundams and restarted the war.

"Help, she's trying to kill me, I'm going to die!" Shinn shouted at the guard in the brig, Stellar heard the boy say the word, "die." Suddenly, she felt really scared and stopped trying to kill him, she was really scared, "I'm not going to die," she repeatedly whispered to herself, as the knife clattered from her grasp onto the floor. She curled up protectively in a ball on the ground, constantly reassuring herself that she was going to live, that Neo wouldn't let anything happen to her, she was safe with him.

The guard was nowhere to be seen, Shinn saw the girl whimpering in fear, "Nothing's going to happen, you aren't going to die," he reassured the girl, "I'll keep you safe," he felt sorry for Stellar who just lay there crying. He remembered the fight with Gaia at Armoury One where the pilot had suddenly had a panic attack, not unlike what was happening to the girl now. In his mind Shinn realised that something he said had triggered some reaction in the girl's mind and now she was scared whereas before she was recklessly brave. He reached through the bars and patted her on the shoulder, all the while telling her it would be alright.

Stellar sat up as she heard the reassuring voice, _I'm not going to die_, she repeated to herself, she felt Shinn's reassuring touch on her, she looked into his eyes, _he touched me again, but this time it was nice,_ she thought to herself. He seems to make me feel safe, unlike anyone else except for Neo. It was then that Neo strode into the brig, to interrogate Shinn, for the second time. The first time the masked man had just confirmed that he was a pilot of ZAFT and then had left, apparently there had been trouble elsewhere.

"Stellar, what are you doing here," he asked her, "escort the prisoner to my office," he ordered the guards who had come with him.

"Neo," Stellar said as she ran up to hug him. He stopped her, "now, now we shouldn't be doing anything inappropriate, especially in front of the prisoner," Neo said, "now run along and join the others," Stellar exited the brig and went up on the deck to look at the ocean. The guards opened the brig cell and escorted Shinn into Neo' private office.

Neo entered his own office and motioned for the guards to sit Shinn down in the chair. "You may leave, and wait outside the door" he ordered. The guards saluted and went to wait outside.

_Slap!_ Neo hit Shinn on the face, "If you ever hurt her again, I will kill you," he said. Shinn's eyes were full of fire, but he knew that to try to escape now was futile, the guards were still outside the door and armed, and he didn't know how well Neo could fight. "Now you will answer my questions, you are Shinn Asuka, pilot of the Impulse, serving on the Minerva, are you not?" Neo asked.

"I was only trying to help her," Shinn argued, "she was really scared," he continued, omitting the part where Stellar had tried to kill him, "It's not my fault. And I'm not answering any of your questions." A defiant look crossed his face.

"If you don't answer, I suppose that tougher measures will be taken to make you talk. You can talk to me now, or you will talk to the professional army interrogators who will hurt you a lot more. I advise you to talk now; otherwise things will be a lot more unpleasant," Neo threatened, "So I ask once again, you are Shinn Asuka, pilot of the Impulse serving on the Minerva, are you not."

Shinn knew what Neo had threatened would happen if he refused to answer the questions, so he decided to cooperate, "Yes, I am," he replied.

"Good, now you can tell me about the other personnel on the Minerva, I can tell if you lie so don't lie to me," Neo warned. "Who is the pilot of the other Gundam unit, Saviour?"

Shinn was shocked over the sheer amount of knowledge that Neo possessed about ZAFT forces and so he answered, "Athrun Zala is the pilot of the Saviour." Another strange feeling came over Neo that name sounded really familiar, somehow, but he ignored the feeling and continued, "And the kid in white is?"

"Rey Za Burrel, pilot of the Zaku," Shinn answered.

"Describe his appearance to me," Neo asked, now that he had a name to put to that kid in white.

"He's about my age, white-blonde hair, shoulder length, blue eyes," Shinn replied, unsure of why Neo had asked such a question. An image of the past flashed into Neo's memory, "La Crueset," he murmured unintentionally, not knowing why. Neo couldn't shake that uncomfortable feeling about that kid, but he was in the middle of the interrogation. He looked down to his datapad and continued, "And the one in the red Zaku?"

"Lunamaria Hawke," Shinn replied, wanting the questioning to end quickly.

"The Captain of the Minerva is Talia Gladys, is it not?" Neo asked again. Shinn confirmed the fact. "And your mission is?"

"As far as I know, our mission is to help neutral countries stop you from invading them, we are purely deployed in a defensive role," Shinn answered. Suddenly, the comm. on Neo's desk blatted, he looked down and saw it was an urgent priority message from Lord Jibril himself. He called out to the guards after he opened the door and ordered them to escort Shinn back to the brig.

"Lord Jibril," he said as he closed the door.

"Colonel Lorrnoke, the JP Jones will proceed to the following location, there it will receive the Destiny Mobile Suit, my present to you for your good work. With it you should be able to destroy the Minerva," Jibril's voice came through the comm. system.

"Yes, Lord Jibril, I understand," Neo said. _Now I have you, little kitten_. Lord Jibril's image and voice faded out as the connection was severed. Neo stepped out to the bridge, "we are to proceed to these following co-ordinates," he ordered the helmsman to change course. The JP Jones proceeded along the set course towards the pick-up point. Shinn was escorted back to the brig and locked up again.

Meanwhile, near Victoria, the Archangel remained hidden off the coast. Intelligence from local resistance groups indicated that the Earth Alliance would soon attack Victoria and the African Community, which was partial to PLANT. Murrue, Andy, Cagalli, Lacus and Kira sat in the officer's lounge planning their next move. For Andy it was almost a homecoming, once known as the 'Tiger of the Desert.'

"We have to stop try to stop the Earth Alliance attack on Africa. There are two fronts, the north-western front from which Eurasia and the Atlantic Federation may attack from, as soon as it has finished subjugating Scandinavia and the south-eastern front, on which the South African Union is attacking from. In the way of the south-eastern front, is Victoria Base, belonging to ZAFT. I propose that we have to join forces for mutual benefit, to repel the Earth Alliance attack, with this front subjugated, we may have a better chance of defending the other front in which they hold more firepower," Andy suggested.

"Yes, it is our best course," Lacus agreed, "but how should we approach the African Community, as far as I remember we are traitors and ZAFT did try to kill me."

"I could get into touch with local resistance around the northern front, we served there last war," Cagalli suggested, "I still have the contacts of the resistance fighters, I'm sure they could put us into touch with those on the southern front."

The Minerva sailed and flew down towards Mahamul base and North Africa, even though Shinn was gone. They had searched for a while with the help of local resistance but Shinn had disappeared. Most of the crew now gave him up for dead even though it hadn't been confirmed yet.

Shinn sat in the brig, as Stellar wondered in again, "Hello, thank you for your help last time, you made me feel safe and wanted. What's your name? I'm Stellar Loussier," Stellar introduced herself.

"I'm Shinn Asuka, it is nice to meet you, but I couldn't let you suffer like that, I've seen too much suffering, too much fear. I want to put an end to it," Shinn replied.

"Is that why you joined ZAFT?" Stellar asked.

"Yes, when the Earth Alliance killed my family, I swore to always try my hardest so that no other person had to go through what I had to," Shinn said, the words coming from his heart.

"I don't know why I'm in the Earth Alliance, all I really remember is that Neo makes me feel safe, like you do," Stellar replied. "Neo told me that the Earth Alliance had to stop PLANT from wiping out all Naturals. I remember the last war too, I saw the Genesis on TV, I know that I have to stop that from happening again."

"PLANT has done some bad things in the past," Shinn agreed, "but the current chairman, Dullindal is a good man. How did you know when to steal the new Gundams from Armoury One?" Shinn asked Stellar.

"The mission started at least one year ago, Neo started our training as soon as he heard. The strange thing was that I overheard once that it was someone from ZAFT that had contacted us and told us about the Gundams," Stellar answered. Shinn was shocked, for that to happen there must have been a highly placed traitor within ZAFT. But that project was part of FAITH which reported to Chairman Dullindal directly. He had to continue to talk to her, so that he could find out more.

"Uhhhh…so Neo is the masked guy isn't he," Shinn asked, just trying to continue the conversation, he didn't really know what else to say.

"Yes, he is," Stellar replied dreamily, "he's a really nice man who makes sure that I always feel safe, that's why I like him so much, and that's also why I'm sure you are not evil." Her eyes look reassured and she knew that she was safe here, even though he was from ZAFT.

Shinn found it hard to not stare at this enigmatic girl, she was pretty and brave but she was also scared at the same time. "What's that you're holding?" he asked as he saw something pink in Stellar's hand.

"It's yours," Stellar replied, "I want to give it to you, it is obviously something very important to you." She handed him Mayu's mobile phone which had been taken from him by Neo, "it was in Neo's office and I took it, because I knew it was important for you. But promise me you won't use it."

"Thank you, Stellar," Shinn said, feeling gratitude to Stellar, who had obviously risked a severe reprimand to give him back something that he treasured. _Maybe not everyone in the Earth Alliance is that bad_.

"Anyway I have to go now, see you again," Stellar replied, disrupting Shinn's reverie, "I have some errands to run."

"Good-bye Stellar," Shinn replied, "Stay safe for me." He sat back down on the bed in the brig, and began to think about what else to ask Stellar the next time they talked again, but all he could think about how strong and vulnerable that Stellar was at the same time.

Neo eagerly awaited the delivery of the Destiny Gundam; finally, the war would be over and the world would be at peace. _Now that the Destiny is coming, I don't need to pump that ZAFT pilot for information anymore. The Destiny, in my hands should be able to destroy that Saviour and then the Minerva._

Meanwhile, the Archangel headed towards Victoria base, through Cagalli's contacts they had managed to get through to the local resistance, and they prepared to attack the enemy forces. Murrue and Andy sat in the officer's lounge with the other pilots outlining their plan of attack and who they would be supporting.After the meeting had finished, Andy, Cagalli and Kira suited up ready to execute their plan.

Lacus and Milliaria sat in their shared stateroom, talking. After exhausting the boring topics of conversation, they started talking about their love life or lack thereof. "Kira is really the perfect guy," Lacus stated, "He's really caring, that's what I like about him most, the way he takes care of me, I know that he would never leave me in danger, he would do anything to help me if I was in trouble. After the damage that that Flay girl did to his psyche, I thought that he had almost lost the ability to love, but I was glad that I was wrong. "

"I agree, even though Flay was a friend, what she did to Kira was despicable. She used him and didn't even love him," Milliaria replied, "I can see that you love him with all your heart and that it is a true love. My love life on the other hand, is sort of non-existent, I mean, Dearka and I talk sometimes but I haven't seen him for so long, and keeping any sort of long-distance relationship is a recipe for disaster, or so my parents say." _I really wish he was here, with me_.

"I don't think so, if you and he are true loves, than your love should be able to survive anything even prolonged separation. I'm not saying that you may or may not make mistakes but in the end you'll be together again, forever," Lacus said, "Just like I knew that Kira and I had true love, as soon as I first laid eyes on him. Dating Flay was his mistake and my engagement to Athrun was mine, but I knew that as soon as we had some time together that we would forget about those mistakes and move on with our lives together. You need to do the same, when you and Dearka meet again make sure you spend a lot of time together, and then you'll know that it is right."

Kira knocked on the door of their shared stateroom, interrupting their talk, "Lacus, Milliaria we have to go to the bridge," Kira said, "We're moving out." Lacus and Milliaria got up, Kira gave Lacus a quick kiss before exiting and going down the passage to the hangar while Milli and Lacus went the other way, up to the bridge.

"Condition Red, Condition Red, all crew prepare for combat," Milliaria said over the comm. as she settled into her place on the bridge.

As the other officers came into the bridge, Lacus took her place in the Executive Officer's chair, "Prepare to surface, on the Captain's mark," she ordered.

"Prepare the ship for anti-MS, anti-ship combat as soon as we surface, start the surfacing procedure, mark," Murrue, in the captain's chair calmly said. The Archangel's thrusters fired as the ship began to move off its seafloor hiding place, into the open sea above. When it surfaced Murrue issued the next order, "Bring us to the side of the resistance base, we will lead their troops. Prepare to launch Mobile Suits from the hangar."

"Freedom, clear to launch," Milliaria's voice came over Kira's comm. system.

"Kira Yamato, Freedom, away," Kira said back over the comm, as the right bay of the Archangel opened, and the catapult system ejected Freedom into the sky, as it activated its engines, flying out to meet the enemy forces.

"Strike Rouge, clear to launch," Milliaria's voice came over the comm. system.

"Cagalli Yula Athha, Strike Rouge, away," her voice rang over the comm. as Cagalli launched in her Gundam out of the left hangar. Strike Rouge catapulted out of the Archangel's hangar, it rose to join Freedom.

"Murasame, clear to launch," Milliaria's voice again, as the last of Archangel's Gundams prepared to launch.

"Andrew Waltfield, Murasame launching," Andy said, ready for his first mobile suit battle in this war. The Yellow Murasame launched out of the Archangel's right hangar bay, joining the Freedom and the Strike Rouge. They saw the that the battle had started without them, ZAFT forces engaged the Earth Alliance forces on the right, while the local resistance engaged the forces on the left. It was to the left front that the forces from the Archangel headed.

"Gottfried, fire on my mark," Murrue's voice rang clearly through the bridge, as the Archangel sailed into cannon range, "Fire." The Archangel came into the battle from the side, taking the Earth Alliance forces by surprise, the Gottfried cannons fired, destroying the enemy ships before they could do anything to react. "Fire again on my mark, then move turn fifteen degrees to port" Murrue ordered, as the some of the Earth Alliance ships re-oriented themselves to the new threat, "Fire."

_A/N: Sweet Shinn and Stellar fluff! Anyway, there will be more Archangel…Apologies about the Flay flaming but she sort of did deserve it. Flay is not one of my favourite characters. And Andy is commander of the corps, even though Kira is the better pilot(especially with SEED), Andy is definitely the more experienced officer. And Shinn got slapped again..._


	9. Chapter 8: Battle of Victoria

Chapter 8: The Battle of Victoria

_A/N: Archangel flight is Freedom, Strike Rouge and Murasame. Please continue to R and R this. Things are definitely hotting up both in the action stakes and the romance stakes._

**Thanks to everyone who has reviewed this!**

**Asga**

**LodisLord**

**chaosdragon**

**Angel Of Dreams**

The beams from Archangel's Gottfried cannons sliced through another two Earth Alliance warships, destroying them. They began to return fire, as the Archangel dodged to port, the return fire missing them.

Kira, Cagalli and Andy piloted their three Gundams towards the nearest cluster of mobile suits. They swooped in, firing green laser cannons, destroying the enemy as they sped through the enemy formation, their superior piloting allowing them to come through unscathed. The enemy, now oriented to the approach of the Archangel forces returned fire. Kira, Cagalli and Andy were forced to block the shots.

"We're going to have to change tactics," Andy's spoke through the comm. to Kira and Cagalli, "I'll change mine into plane mode and lead them for you to destroy." Andy's gold Murasame transformed itself into a plane as it sped up ahead of the other two Gundams, his enemies close behind him entered into Kira and Cagalli's firing zone. They fired their laser cannons destroying the Windams which had followed Andy. As Andy's enemies were destroyed he looped around in a narrow arc coming back towards Kira and Cagalli, laser bursts firing from his Murasame, as he hit the enemies behind Kira and Cagalli as well as mopping up the rest of his.

More Windams and Daggers came at them as the Earth Alliance forces turned their attention towards the new battleship that appeared on the side of the local resistance, the Alliance commanders were worried as intelligence had said that the ZAFT's Minerva was at the battle of Scandinavia, there was no way that the Minerva could be in Africa at the same time. Nor did intelligence indicate that the Archangel was anywhere near this area. But one of those ships was here now, and they had to deal with that as well as any ZAFT troops on the way.

The Minerva had refuelled and reloaded at Mahamul, and was rushing on its way down to Victoria base where the Earth Alliance had just launched a major attack. At Gibraltar they had picked up three more pilots. The remaining members of the Jule squadron had been assigned to the Minerva, bringing its mobile suit complement up to six.

Yzak had been surprised to see Athrun back in ZAFT uniform, Dearka had seemed nonchalant but he had asked if Athrun had seen Milliaria in Orb. "Lacus is not engaged to you again, is she, Athrun, she's with Kira. I don't belive that you would try to steal your best friend's girl, especially when you were deeply in love with his sister. This 'Lacus' that Dullindal is parading around isn't the real one is she?" Dearka asked Athrun as they sat in the pilots lounge on the Minerva, the view outside the window of the sea passing by as the Minerva sped down towards Victoria.

"She is the real Lacus," Athrun replied in a soft voice, not his usual, feeling rotten for lying to his friend, but Dullindal wouldn't want anyone finding out his secret.

Dearka read Athrun's expression rather than listened to his words, and his expression said it all, the 'Lacus' that he was engaged to was not the real 'Lacus', when he had seen the charity concert that 'Lacus' had given, he had had a suspicion that she was fake, and Yzak had agreed. _Dullindal's plan most likely and people do listen to Lacus._ Yzak had told him. "It's something you can't talk about is it, Athrun?" Dearka phrased his words carefully, not wanting to get Athrun in trouble if Dullindal found out that he had leaked information.

"That's something that I can't talk about, Dearka, and I haven't seen Cagalli since I went back to PLANT, last I heard she was onboard the Archangel with Kira. Sometimes I wish that I could just leave and find them, but there's something wrong here and I need to know what," Athrun said, "even though the Archangel is rumoured to have been around in battlefield, I can't just leave to find her."

Dearka knew that Athrun was talking about Cagalli when he had mentioned finding her. "I know, I sometimes wish I could just leave to find Milliaria, this time I don't want to let her go, maybe when this whole sordid thing is over, we can settle down. But with the war and everything…I don't know when I'll see her again." He looked slightly downcast, as he thought of Milliaria little knowing that she was back on the Archangel.

"You'll see her soon, I hope, just like I think that I'll see Cagalli again soon," Athrun replied. As he was talking he saw that Rey and Lunamaria had walked in, "Rey, Lunamaria come over here," he said, gesturing for his pilots to come over and take a seat, "come and meet my good friend, Dearka," Athrun introduced Rey and Lunamaria in a less formal manner than at Gibraltar base. Lunamaria was fascinated with meeting more veterans from Jachin Due.

"Lunamaria, Dearka here is an expert at ranged combat in a ZAKU," Athrun said.

"No expert here, ignore him, he's just joking with you," Dearka interjected, chuckling "it is nice to meet you two, my condolences for your friend Shinn."

"Thank You," Rey replied, "he was a very close friend, we worked together since we graduated." Rey had taken the news that Shinn had been declared missing, presumed dead harder than the others. He had been Shinn's best friend through the past few years, they had shared confidences.

Yzak and Shiho were kissing in Yzak's room. They had been going out for almost a year now, their romance had started with her crush on him and it had been a while before he had developed some feelings for her, but they were now definitely together for the long run. As soon as the war was over, they decided that Shiho at least would try to find some less dangerous employment, lest they both die and leave their kids orphaned when they had children. Her lips met his and they embraced their tongue's entwining, enjoying, savouring every moment they had together.

Back in Africa, the battle of Victoria was now in earnest, the battle raged on as Earth Alliance forces pushed forward on the right front. ZAFT forces fought bravely and died bravely, the attack of the Earth Alliance fleets was starting to overwhelm the ZAFT defenders, until Freedom, Strike Rouge and Murasame came roaring through cutting swathes through the Earth Alliance mobile suit corps. Having forced a partial victory on the left front, the flight from the Archangel had taken some time to help the beleaguered right. ZAFT pilots took advantage of the distraction from the Archangel's flight of Gundams, firing at their opponent's destroying many of them.

The Archangel continued to engage the Earth Alliance carriers in battle, "Fire," Murrue's voice rang through the comm. as the Archangel unleashed another barrage of Igellstung missiles and Gottfried cannons. "What is the status of our pilots and the right front," Murrue asked.

"They are at the right front helping the defenders, Earth Alliance suits are falling," Lacus replied, "the numbers are starting to even up, and we should press on for victory on our front."

"Give them another five minutes, and then recall them to the left," Murrue ordered. Milliaria relayed the order to the pilots through the comm. and received acknowledgements from the pilots.

Archangel flight continued to trade blows with the Earth Alliance fleet. "Kira, Cagalli same gambit again as last time," Andy commanded, as his golden Murasame transformed into its jet mode, streaking ahead, leading the Earth Alliance pilots into a trap. This time some of the pilots avoided the trap being clever enough to realise that they would be cannon fodder for the Freedom and the Strike Rouge if they had mirrored the Murasame's change in speed. Kira and Cagalli dispensed with the enemy pilots that had fallen into the trap, while dodging their own enemies. Andy's Murasame raced back through towards Kira and Cagalli firing at the enemy taking out a few more enemy mobile suits, making them explode in fireballs of red, spraying debris around.

Now that ZAFT forces were at least on an even battle field, the Archangel flight withdrew back to the left front, to force hopefully force a victory there, when they returned they saw the first elements of a new Earth Alliance attack batter the local resistance. The Archangel flight charged in ambushing the attackers unleashing a swathe of destruction in its path, resulting in disabled enemy suits, destroyed enemy suits and battleships. The Archangel lead the vanguard which pressed its way forward seeking to engulf the Earth Alliance's forces.

Meanwhile, the JP Jones had proceeded to its destination and began to load the new Destiny Gundam. Neo watched as the predominantly white mobile suit was loaded onto the hangar of the JP Jones. _Finally, soon the war can be over and the world can be at peace._ One of the officers came through the intercom, "Colonel Lorrnoke, you have a private communication in your office, top priority." Neo cursed as he didn't have time to now test out his new Gundam.

Shinn and Stellar had grown closer, she visited him everyday since he had been captured and the two now shared a semi-close relationship, "Stellar, if we could leave here, then we could be safe forever, wouldn't you like that," Shinn asked, knowing that his feelings for her were now as deep as her feelings for him.

"But I can't leave Neo, he makes me feel safe," Stellar said, "I can't leave."

"He puts you in danger every time he sends you out to battle, you could you know…in the battle, as I'm sure that ZAFT thinks that I am," Shinn replied, arguing now with calm logic, "you could end up like my little sister who owned the phone, caught up, unable to do anything, if we escape then we can go somewhere else."

The stateroom door closed automatically behind him as he entered, but Neo didn't notice that the door had jammed itself leaving a narrow gap into the corridor. Lord Jibril was on the other end of the line, "you are to proceed to Victoria in all haste, we have met unexpected resistance by local forces. Your Gundams are needed. I trust you received my present, here's a chance for you to test it out."

Tears started to fill Stellar's eyes, part of her wanted to go, part of her wanted to stay, she didn't know what to say. Shinn was really nice and she didn't doubt the sincerity of his promise that he would keep her safe, he was a good enough pilot to fend of any attack. She was just very confused.

"We'll leave together, I won't let anything happen to you, I promise." Shinn said, as he finaly convinced Stellar who then went outside, surprised the guard and knocked him out, opened Shinn's cell and beckoned for him to follow her. They snuck out into the passageway, towards the hangar where they could escape.

Shinn and Stellar crept past the door of Neo's stateroom. Through the slightly ajar door he could see a mirror and then he saw a face in the mirror, the face behind the mask of Neo. Shinn committed the face to his memory, knowing that as soon as he got back to safety he could do something about it. But now, he had to escape. Stellar came back from scouting the next corridor and quickly beckoned him to follow. They took the long careful route to the hangar, carefully avoiding any of the guards. The mechanics were working in the hangar as Stellar passed them, on the way to the Gaia.

The Destiny stood unattended at the back of the hangar, Stellar deftly distracted all the Earth Alliance mechanics and Shinn was able to sneak his way to the Gundam. Even when Stellar jumped into the cockpit of the Gaia, the mechanics thought that nothing was wrong, they had long learned to ignore the wanderings of the human CPUs. It was not until the Gaia powered up and started to move inside the hangar creating carnage that they hit the distress button.

While Stellar powered up the Gaia, Shinn sat down in the cockpit of the Destiny, powering it on, rapidly typing, and adjusting the Operating System so that it suited him. Gaia blew open a hole in the ship so that they could escape. The Gaia changed into quadruped form and bounded out the hole onto the sea, making for the nearest stretch of land. The Destiny followed behind, its engines thrusting as it flew up and away from the JP Jones, escaping.

Neo was lying down in his stateroom, unmasked as the alarm rang through the whole ship. Putting on his mask he flicked on the intercom. "Report the status," he barked through the intercom.

"Gaia, Destiny have been hijacked, your pilot took the prisoner with him and they have escaped," the panicked voice over the intercom replied. _Shit! What the hell was Stellar doing allowing the prisoner to escape and to let him take my Destiny with him. She betrayed us, we will have to catch up with them. I can't let them escape._ "Launch all the mobile suits, we're close enough to the left front on Victoria to battle, prepare my Windam," Neo ordered, even though he was rather more concerned with recovering his Gundam as he ran to the hangar, little knowing that he would recover something else more precious.

While Shinn and Stellar had been escaping the JP Jones, the Minerva had arrived at the left front, where the Archangel and its flight of Gundams had been trying to force a victory.

The Minerva saw the Archangel fire at the Earth Alliance fleet. On the bridge of the Minerva, Arthur asked, surprised as he had thought that they would have been decommissioned, "what is the Archangel doing here? And the Freedom and Strike Rouge and an unknown suit?"

"It is helping us out by taking out the Earth Alliance forces, launch our mobile suits tell them not to engage the Archangel, Meyrin as soon as Saviour is launched open a private line to Commander Zala," Talia ordered.

"Condition Red, Condition Red. All pilots report to the hangar," Meyrin's voice rang out. The six pilots from the Minerva reported to the hangar ready for launch.

"Athrun Zala, Saviour, launching," Athrun said, as the Saviour was catapulted out of Minerva's hold. A private line message from Captain Gladys appeared on Athrun's monitor, "The Freedom and the Archangel are here, contact them if you can." Athrun acknowledged the order and quickly changed over to Orb frequency and scrambling, "Athrun Zala, pilot of the Saviour calling battleship Archangel and Freedom,"

Lacus spoke, as the Archangel detected the oncoming Minerva, "Captain Ramius," the Minerva is approaching, detecting mobile suit launches from the ship, "what should we do?"

Before Murrue had time to answer a Milli spoke, "Message from the Saviour, Athrun?"

"Put it up on the big screen, Lacus take over combat operations" Murrue asked, "Athrun, what are you doing here?"

"Captain Ramius, the Minerva is on its way to help ZAFT forces in the defence of Victoria, Captain Gladys of the Minerva wishes to speak face-to-face, here's the comm. frequency. Send IFF information that we are friendly. Athrun Zala, out," Athrun said, and then he closed the connection.

"Ensign Haww, open communications on the channel provided by Athrun, this is Captain Ramius of the Archangel wishing to parlay with Captain Gladys," Murrue said.

On the Minerva a video communications came up, as the Minerva launched its other five units. "Captain Gladys speaking," Talia said. She saw the face on the screen and then she remembered the woman on the other side from Morgenraete, she had identified herself as Maria Belmes at the time, but Talia understood that it was just an alias, after all Athrun had used one too to hide his identity after Jachin Due. "I would like to propose an alliance between the Minerva and the Archangel in the defence of Victoria, and I think that Athrun wants to see a certain someone again, so perhaps we can meet after the battle."

"I agree, to the alliance and Athrun is free to fly over after the battle to discuss a more permanent arrangement," Murrue replied, "But now we have a battle to win, we'll discuss some more later."

The Archangel's flight of Gundams received word of Athrun's return and the alliance with the Minerva. Cagalli, in Strike Rouge was particularly happy; soon she would get to see Athrun again. The Minerva's mobile suits rose to join the Archangel flight in battle. Athrun saw the Freedom, Strike Rouge and a new suit, the Murasame duke it out with the Earth Alliance suits ripping their forces to shreds with superior flying and tactics.

The mobile suit pilots from the Minerva charged towards the closest enemy mobile suits and ships and began firing as fast as their lasers could cycle.

_A/N: So Shinn and Stellar have escaped, but they are near Victoria, so will they run into trouble there? What will happen on the left front as both the Minerva and the Archangel press the attack against the Earth Alliance? What will happen after when Athrun returns to Cagalli when he is 'engaged' to 'Lacus'? Read the next Chapter: Freedom and Destiny._


	10. Chapter 9: Freedom and Destiny

Chapter 9: Freedom and Destiny

**Hitomi-san: thanks for the review I hope you enjoy the rest of the story**

**Asga, Angel of Dreams, Chaos Dragon, LodisLord: Thanks heaps. I don't know what I would do without you guys, my regular reviewers...**

_A/N: There will probably by a bit of OOCness for Lacus, but I think that this makes the story more 'fun' to read and plus I rather see Lacus as someone who is nice to everyone but she has a hidden strength that comes out…just a bit of tongue and cheek by me. Some MillixDearka, AthrunxCagalli. I'm actually in the middle of doing a major storyline change...I decided to lengthen the story some more. Remeber to review this!_

Stellar's Gaia ran overland as Shinn flew over in Destiny, headed somewhere, away from the JP Jones which they had just escaped. "Are you alright, Stellar?" Shinn asked over the comm.

"I'm fine, but let's get somewhere safe," Stellar replied as Gaia bounded over the plains in Northern Africa, little knowing the storm they would walk into near Victoria base.

Minerva's mobile suits joined in the attack in two flights of three, lead by Athrun and Yzak. Between the nine mobile suits and the two battleships, the left front of the Earth Alliance fleet was in the process of being decimated. The power of the pilots of Jachin Due proved telling as the allied forces cut through Earth Alliance lines, raining plasma on the enemy battleships, destroying them, making them explode.

Athrun's Saviour landed within the Archangel's hold, as was agreed in the terms of the temporary alliance. Kira greeted him as he alighted from the Saviour, "I think that you had better go see Cagalli before you see Murrue and Andy, I'll with you there, we can catch up," Kira said as Athrun followed him out of the hangar.

Athrun and Kira walked through the hallways, "I heard that you kidnapped Cagalli from her wedding," Athrun quipped, secretly happy that Cagalli was still free to be his.

"Yes, I couldn't let her marry Yuuna when she obviously loved you with all her heart," Kira replied, "I had to do something," changing the topic he continued, "I think that you should be prepared, I think that Cagalli will be quite hurt and angry at your engagement to that fake Lacus." By now, they had reached the stateroom, "well I think that I should leave you alone with Cagalli right now, and get back to the bridge, don't take too long," Kira said as he left Athrun by the door.

Athrun entered the stateroom, but waiting for him was not only Cagalli, but an annoyed Lacus as well. Athrun gulped. "How could you be engaged to that tramp who's trying to pass herself off as me?" Lacus asked, angrier than she had ever been, "that tramp flaunts herself like a prostitute. Did you know that Dullindal tried to have me killed?" she demanded, quite angry.

"Some of the people on the Minerva seem to like the new more edgier you," Athrun tried to joke, but that only made Lacus more angry. She threw up her hands in disgust, "we'll talk later, but when I get my hands on that wench," Lacus said as she left, "I think Cagalli has even more to say to you."

Cagalli took the cue from Lacus as she left, "What is this engagement to 'Lacus', you proposed to me before you left for ZAFT, don't tell me you have changed so much," she demanded, angry that Athrun had allowed the pretence that he had engaged to 'Lacus' last so long.

"It's only a political ploy by Dullindal, I don't really trust him anymore, especially after what Lacus accused him of doing," Athrun explained, "He seemed really genuine at the time and he did offer me Saviour. He needed someone to unite PLANT and since Lacus did such an effective job last time, he just used her, but covering his tracks by having the real Lacus killed I'm not one hundred percent sure it was him, even though it seems that he would be the only one to gain from her death and everything to lose if she stays alive. But I think that right now, that is unimportant, what is important is that I'm with you again," Athrun said, embracing Cagalli in a hug, giving her a kiss, "I see that you are still wearing my ring."

"I've been waiting for you too; I understand that Lacus has a right to be annoyed with Chairman Dullindal but you are right, what is most important is that we have some time together, and I want to tell you that I accept, when this is over, I will marry you, Athrun," Cagalli said as they kissed again this time for longer, more passionate than before. Happy that Cagalli had accepted him Athrun said, "Well I think that we should celebrate and tell everyone else, don't you think." They exited the stateroom, towards the briefing room, as he entered he saw Millaria, "Millaria, you are here, I know that Dearka's been thinking of you everyday, he's over on the Minerva," Athrun said, he saw Murrue, Andy, Kira and Lacus as well. Lacus looked a lot calmer now then she had been ten minutes ago, "Captain Ramius, Waltfield-san, Kira, Lacus," he greeted them as he settled into a chair next to Cagalli. They held each other's hands. "Cagalli and I have some news," he said, "we're going to marry," Athrun said, announcing the happy news, "at the end of the war, when I don't have to be engaged to that fake Lacus anymore."

Everyone else in the room broke out in congratulations for the happy couple, Kira shook Athrun's hand and gave Cagalli a small kiss on the cheek, "I'm walking you down the aisle at your wedding, little sister," Kira said, "then I'll give you to the man of your dreams." After a short celebration, and a few drinks of water, they had still to negotiate an alliance.

Captain Ramius lead the negotiations, "I think that this should only be a loose alliance, we don't want to wed ourselves to ZAFT, we still think that Dullindal was behind the attempted assassination of Lacus, but I agree that we need to work together to prevent the Earth Alliance from conquering neutral countries. However, if we do, then no one mentions a word about Lacus Clyne to anyone on the Minerva."

Athrun considered his next words carefully, "I think that the Minerva and the Archangel can work together, but if what you say about Dullindal is true, then he may order us to destroy you, in which case, we could end up fighting one another. Even though I think that most of the mobile suit pilots would balk at the order, it is still a direct order and some on the ship may be inclined to obey it, especially those who weren't at Jachin Due. Perhaps I should send Dearka over to you as assurance of our alliance," Athrun suggested, knowing that it would make them happy, and also solve a little problem just in case.

"We understand the difficult situation that you would be in, we shall keep this alliance a secret from Dullindal, you don't necessarily have to tell him that we are allied, we're just helping the local resistance around the world, and so are you," Murrue said. Athrun agreed with the crew of the Archangel, the alliance would have to be kept secret from Dullindal. Technically, since he was a member of FAITH, which reported only to Dullindal, he didn't have to tell anyone on the Minerva and didn't have to make reports to Dullindal that often, but it would only be a matter of time before someone realised that they were allied. Athrun and the command of the Archangel discussed the terms of the alliance, when they had concluded; Milliaria asked Athrun if he could take her with him to the Minerva, she wanted to see Dearka again.

Athrun was more than happy to oblige Milliaria, so they exited the hangar of the Archangel bound back to the Minerva. Athrun opened a comm. channel without video feed to the Minerva, "I'm coming back in, prepare for landing," he said as Meyrin acknowledged. Milliaria had asked him not to mention her presence, she wanted to surprise Dearka. The Saviour landed back in the hold of the Minerva. The repair crew were surprised to see a brunette girl alight along with Athrun. Athrun told them to mind their own business, she was a visitor from the Archangel. He lead her quietly down towards Dearka's room, careful to avoid running into people who were inclined to ask questions.

When they arrived, he knocked on the door, "Dearka," Athrun said, "I have a surprise for you from the Archangel."

"Come in," the reply came, as the door opened.

"Surprise, Dearka, it's Milliaria," Milli said in a really happy tone, as she stepped out from behind Athrun. Dearka was shocked, last he had heard Milliaria had been discharged from the army and worked as a photographer.

"I suppose that I should leave you two alone to catch up," Athrun stated, as he left. Milliaria and Dearka entered into his room, the door shutting behind them.

"Milliaria, it is so good to see you again," Dearka exclaimed, "You don't know how long I've been waiting to see you again."

"Me too, but now we're here, together, I think that I'm ready to give us a try," Milliaria replied, sitting Dearka down, she kissed him on the lips, his hands holding her head, her hands around his waist. They kissed for a good minute before they let go, "how was that?" Milliaria asked.

"That was really good," Dearka replied, blushing slightly, as he realised that the girl he had wanted ever since he had laid eyes on her wanted him too, just as badly as he wanted her. They kissed again, tongues entwined, enjoying every blissful moment of the ecstasy that they enjoyed, being together. Every moment that they had together was savoured. They talked about life after Jachin Due, the events that had lead to this second war. Milliaria recounted how Kira had saved her from death when her helicopter had been destroyed. The shared their hopes and fears with each other.

"Mobile suits detected, it's the Gaia and an unknown suit, Condition Red," Meyrin's voice rang over the Minerva's comm. system, interrupting Dearka and Milliaria's time together, "I have to go," Dearka said, "I'll see if I can get you back to the Archangel before we have to fight." Dearka and Milliaria headed towards the hangar of the Minerva, seeing the other pilots hurry towards the hangar as well. "Yzak," Dearka called, "I'm going to have to return Milliaria to the Archangel first."

"Hurry back, Dearka," Yzak's crisp reply came, as they entered the hangar.

"Hailing all ZAFT forces, this is Shinn Asuka, we are friendly, I repeat do not fire on the Gaia, she's a friendly, do not fire at us, we've escaped from the Earth Alliance forces and I think we are being pursued," Shinn's voice rang over ZAFT frequencies and the Minerva.

Meanwhile on the Archangel they were at full battle alert, "Freedom ready to launch, all systems green," Lacus's voice came over the comm. system.

"Kira Yamato, Freedom, away," Kira said as the Freedom came out the hold.

"Put the pilots on standby to launch but don't launch. Put the message on full video," Talia ordered on the Minerva, as the two suits came closer but didn't fire. Shinn's face showed up on the screen, "Shinn, we thought that you were dead," Talia said, shocked.

"Message from Minerva, they say that the two unknown suits are friendlies, repeat, do not engage them," Milliaria's voice came over the comm.

"Recall the Freedom," Murrue ordered.

"This isn't safe, Shinn, I'm scared," Stellar's voice came over panicked through the comm. as they approached the Minerva. _I'll make it safe for you, Stellar_. It was then Shinn saw the Freedom, memories came rushing back, his family running away from the fighting, his sister dropping her mobile phone down the valley, he rushed to get it, then the big explosion and then the images of severed limbs and the dead bodies of his parents. Shinn felt something snap inside him, a calm rage, a certain serenity as he entered Seed mode, in his mind he vowed that he would destroy the Freedom to make it safe, safe for Stellar.

Athrun panicked when he saw Shinn's mobile suit head straight for the Freedom, all guns blazing, Athrun commed the bridge, "launch the Saviour right now, I have to stop them." He ran for the hangar and swung up into the pilot's chair, frustrated that Shinn would attack the Freedom. "Athrun Zala, Saviour launching," he said as clearance was given, he flicked on the Archangel's comm. frequency, "Archangel, this is not a severance of the alliance, Shinn has something personal against the Freedom, I repeat, this is not a severance of the alliance." Athrun rushed towards the battle between the Freedom and the Destiny.

On the bridge of the Archangel Cagalli recognised the name that Athrun had given. She remembered the troubled Shinn, from her time on the Archangel and how he had lost his entire family on Orb. "Murrue, the alliance is still active, I believe Athrun, this kid Shinn has something deep against Orb and the Freedom. His family died on Orb when it was attacked in the last war and he can't get over it, I'm sure that Kira can take care of him" Cagalli explained.

"But we shall keep weapons and mobile suits ready, you should go, Cagalli," Murrue said, quietly confident that Kira could win without killing Shinn. The Gaia just continued to run away from the two ships hiding a comfortable distance away.

Kira saw the unknown mobile suit head right towards him, firing, he had heard Athrun's explanation. It brought back some of the old pain from before but he steeled himself, knowing that he didn't want to kill Shinn, he calmed himself and entered Seed Mode. As the Destiny blazed in, the Freedom responded dodging and returning fire, forcing Shinn to block.

The two Gundams danced around, firing in the dance of death, both pilots being in Seed Mode, a furiously paced battle as they both performed manoeuvres on the wrong side of impossible. Athrun felt helpless as he approached the fight, the Gundams were flying blurs as they clashed releasing a spectacular light show. He opened the ZAFT frequency, "Shinn, stop it, stop fighting, this is going to solve nothing. You are fighting the wrong enemy. Shinn destroying the Freedom won't bring anything for you but more pain. I can't let you destroy the Freedom, both as a superior officer and more importantly as a friend. Destroying the Freedom would only create more pain, and then I would be forced to attack you and possibly kill you," Athrun said.

Kira dodged the Destiny's attack, and fired, hitting the Destiny on the arm, a glancing blow but it damaged the arm of the Destiny. _I have to finish this soon_, Kira knew that he would have to disable the Destiny, otherwise other people could get hurt and the Gaia was still out there, it could attack at any time. Kira wheeled his Freedom around, parrying the Destiny's attack, his deadly calm operating at the full capacity of the Ultimate Coordinator, he brought his full will to bear, possible strategies and tactics evaluated and rejected in his head until he found the right one. He drew the Freedom's beam saber and charged towards the Destiny.

Shinn was in the fight off his life, the pilot of the Freedom was an expert, Shinn cursed mentally as he saw that the Freedom had damaged his new Gundam. _Damn that pilot is good! And his Gundam is as good as mine too_. But Shinn knew he had to do something to keep Stellar safe, he heard Athrun's voice, so distant, "I can't let you destroy the Freedom, both as a superior officer and as a friend," he missed the next bit but then he heard, "I would be forced to attack you and possibly kill you." _No way! We are on the same side, I can't make him fight me. He's right. _That snapped Shinn back into reality. He quickly boosted his suit backwards away from the Freedom and peeled off down towards the Gaia. He saw that the Freedom had not followed him, but had also withdrawn its weapons. He spoke through the comm. to Athrun, "You're right, destroying the Freedom won't bring back my family but why did you say you would be forced to destroy me?"

"Because," the words came through the comm. from Athrun, "Because the pilot of the Freedom is my best friend, a brother to me. And the crew of the Archangel are also my very close friends. They are all veterans of Jachin Due."

Shinn opened a comm. channel to Stellar, "Stellar," he said, "it is okay, they are all friends. You can come with me to the Minerva, we'll keep you safe." As the Destiny went towards the Gaia, Freedom flew back into the Archangel's hold and Milliaria returned to the Archangel, her see-you-later kiss for Dearka lasting about five minutes before he departed. They promised to see each other again soon, as both the Archangel and the Minerva headed towards the refuelling station and shore leave.

_A/N: Well, looks like the Archangel and Minerva are friendly towards each other for now at least. Shore leave should be fun. Anyway, read the next Chapter: A Promise Fulfilled...so you guys should all be able to at least guess what happens. LOL. And I loved writing the scene between Athrun, Cagalli and Lacus._


	11. Chapter 10: A Promise Fulfilled

Chapter 10: A Promise Fulfilled

_A/N: Thanks for putting up with that rant on the announcement...any feedback on the second point would be very appreciated by me. Anyway, to my new reviewers...welcome and I hope that you enjoy this chapter because I had real fun writing it. Remember to R and R this._

**_Blitzryuu, Lightyearsaway,aikoo: Thanks for reviewing this...it's really good to have you guys on board_**

**_Asga, Lodislord, AngelofDreams,chaosdragon: You guys are really great...thanks for the continuous reviews_**

His personal pride wounded, Neo stood on the bridge of the JP Jones and its battle group, ready to descend on Victoria. However, unknown to the crew of the JP Jones allied forces had already been victorious against the Earth Alliance fleet at Victoria. _I have to recover that Mobile Suit. _Neo vowed that he would take the Mobile Suit back even if it meant reducing it to scrap and rebuilding it from scratch.

"Looks like they Gaia and the Destiny have stopped, sir, on the shore," the duty officer reported to Neo as the JP Jones and its support ships pulled closer to the Minerva and their target.

"Good, prepare for the attack, they won't expect such a quick raid, especially after the battle." They had just received intelligence that the ZAFT forces had repulsed the attack on Victoria. _That just makes it harder, doesn't it, but I will soon destroy you little kitten._ Neo ordered the Chaos and the Abyss and the squad of Windams. "All ships, battle stations, launch all the mobile suits, we are going after them," Neo ordered as he left the bridge ready to pilot his personal Windam, hopefully for the last time. "Neo Lorrnoke, Windam, going out," he said as the mobile suits from the Earth fleet launched. He would personally lead the attack on the Destiny with the Chaos, while the Abyss would take the Gaia down.

Shinn and Stellar, in their Gundams bounded towards the port where the Archangel and the Minerva, where he would reunite with old friends and Stellar would be safe from the Earth Alliance.

Athrun and Cagalli, Dearka and Milliaria met outside on the docks to catch up, and do things that couples do, they were joined by Yzak and Shiho, and decided to all go to the local café for food. Kira and Lacus stayed onboard the Archangel, in Kira's stateroom, the command of the Archangel felt that it was prudent that ZAFT people didn't see Lacus not where she was meant to be. They sat inside Kira's room making out. Murrue and Andy shared some coffee in the officer's lounge.

As Shinn and Stellar approached the dock, they set down their mobile suits near the Minerva on the dock. Exiting the Destiny first, Shinn jumped off onto the dock and then signalled for Stellar to follow him. She jumped down and he caught he as she landed, and they decided to sit around the dock and look at the ocean, underneath their mobile suits until Captain Gladys or Athrun came by. They just sat hand-in-hand next to each other looking out at the peaceful sea, unaware that they were being tracked by Earth Alliance forces.

Chaos, Abyss and the Windams approached the dock, which was in a disarray after the battle, certainly the monitor staff didn't expect an attack by the Earth Alliance so soon after they had repulsed them. The monitor staff were half-asleep and didn't notice until the enemy until the monitors started beeping furiously. "Crap! There are approaching Earth Alliance suits!" the office suddenly went abuzz as the officer pressed the alarm button. The alarms on the base started ringing, disturbing Athrun, Cagalli, Dearka, Milliaria, Yzak and Shiho from their unofficial triple date, disturbing Stellar and Shinn as they sat together looking out at the ocean which was now definitely not at peace. The alarm interrupted everyone on the Archangel, as Lacus and Kira broke out of their embrace and raced towards the bridge, passing Murrue and Andy respectively as the two women went to their stations on the bridge and the two men went towards their Gundams.

The bridge door opened and Lacus threw herself into Milli's seat, knowing that Milli and the others were outside doing couply stuff and so they would be slow getting back. She put on the headphones as Murrue sat at the front monitors readying the launch.

"Catapult system engaged, door opened, Freedom ready to launch," Lacus said.

"Kira Yamato, Freedom, launching," Kira said as he launched out of the right hangar bay.

"Murasame ready to launch," Lacus's voice came over the comm. system again.

"Andy Waltfield, Murasame, away," Andy said as he launched out of the left hangar bay and rose up to join the Freedom, changing into jet mode.

On the horizon the Earth Alliance mobile suits lead by Neo, came swooping in. The Abyss attacked from over the land, this time and with the Chaos proceeded to engage Andy's Murasame which flew in an intricate series of spirals avoiding the fire of its enemies and managing to hit with its own shots, something which only a veteran pilot could do. He continued to hold off the Chaos and the Abyss with his expert piloting skills.

Kira meanwhile tangled with the Windam suits of the Earth Alliance. He noticed that one was a special purple colour, which flew better than the others. Meanwhile, Shinn and Stellar were climbing into their Gundams, annoyed that they hadn't the chance to get their Gundams fixed yet. The Destiny had wires hanging out of its left, a token of the fight with the Freedom, Shinn decided that he and Stellar had to bully their way into the Minerva's hold to get their suits fixed. They took off together and headed straight for the Minerva.

The three couples rushed towards their respective ships, Cagalli and Milli giving their boyfriends a quick kiss goodbye as they scrambled.

Neo had not expected that there would be a second battleship, which came up on the IFF as the Archangel, somehow it looked familiar as was the Gundam, Freedom which he and his multiple squadrons were engaged in battle against. A strange sensation came over him, like déjà vu but not like it at the same time. He had to put that to the back of his mind, as he continued attacking.

Kira entered seed mode as he chased the purple Windam of the enemy commander. Neo tried a corkscrew trick, the inverted drop-kick and all of the piloting tricks he knew but that enemy Gundam kept up with him, it was almost unnatural the way the enemy suit could almost know his movements even before he had thought of them. _Damn! That other ship with its mobile suits proved too much, even with only two suits against the many suits I bought that Freedom pilot just destroys them so easily, and the Saviour as well._

_Damn it! _Neo thought, as he saw more ZAFT mobile suits join in the battle but they went off to engage the Chaos and the Abyss, _that Freedom has decimated my forces_, too busy wrapped up in his own thoughts, he didn't notice that the Freedom came right at him firing, until it was too late, the green laser shot hit his right engine, reducing his manoeuvrability and sending him into a spin downwards. _I have to land this thing and soon_. The Windam plunged towards the ground, Neo set the thrusters to full as the Windam came to an abrupt landing. He opened the cockpit and drew his pistol from the small storage hold within the cockpit of the Windam. He carefully landed in the forest and took his bearings, he would have to hope that he could avoid ZAT patrols and make it past the border to the South African Union. He set off towards the South and towards what he thought would be his freedom.

Meanwhile, the combined forces of the Minerva and the Archangel had decimated the Earth Alliance fleet destroying the JP Jones and causing the other ships to flee. The Chaos and the Abyss had fled along with the surviving ships. All the mobile suits returned to their respective ships, as Shinn and Stellar were debriefed and taken to sick-bay for medical check-ups just to make sure that they were healthy. Introductions would have to wait for later as they had to capture the enemy commander, whose Windam had gone down, disabled but not destroyed.

The crew of the Archangel and the Minerva decided that they would have to organise a hunting party to capture the enemy commander, having seen his Windam go down, damaged but not destroyed. This was the perfect chance to gather intelligence on Earth Alliance's secret projects. They were to hunt in groups and to keep in contact at all times, and so the hunt for Neo began, the groups separated fanning out in all directions.

Neo knew that he was going to be followed so he set a few traps, including a pit hole which was cleverly disguised. Even though the command of the Archangel and the Minerva were good pilots and ship crewmen, they were poor resistance fighters. Neo saw that one group had fallen into his trap, except for a brown haired woman with marigold eyes, she looked familiar somehow, but he couldn't place her anywhere in his memory, he cursed at himself for being distracted, these feelings were distracting him from his escape.

Murrue caught sight of the fleeing Neo as she saw her team members fall into a neat trap, _their commander is good at tactics as well, he knew that we would hunt him down and took action_. She ran through the rugged forest near the shore giving chase even though her team was out of commission temporarily, they would catch up. The burning Windam mobile suit somewhere, in the background blazed as she continued to chase him through the lush forest. She lost sight of him momentarily, she stopped, a mistake, as he dropped from the branch above her tackling her. The force of the impact sent their pistols spinning away, one to the right and the other to the left. They fought hand to hand, she clawed at him as they struggled. She grabbed his mask and then pushed away, the mask flung on the ground; she was tumbling, running towards the gun on the left. She saw that he had rolled to the right and was slowly rising.

His long blonde hair obscured his face as she bought the gun in line with his head, ready to shoot. She saw that he also had a gun pointed at her. It was then that she saw his face, as he turned around to look her straight in the eyes. An icy chill came over her, pure anguish and pain played over her face, her eyes began to fill with tears when she saw his face. She could find no words to say, as she stared at his face, the face that had haunted her for the last year and a half, _it can't be him, he's dead, he's dead, he's dead_, she repeated to herself as she struggled against her own emotions. They remained frozen as if time had stopped, guns pointed at each other. She had to do something, say something but she remained frozen. But her emotions got the better of her; she only managed a tortured whisper, "Mu…"

Neo had ambushed the woman chasing him and now they stood facing each other, he had lost his mask in the fight, now they stood pistols pointed at each other, they stood still, he saw the anguished pain that passed through her face as she pointed the gun at him. He heard her say something, call out a name, he saw her face clearly, her long brown hair, her brown eyes, and suddenly it all came rushing back…

_The house burning when he was a child, memories of the last war, being a mentor to Kira, the Archangel and its crew, the fight at Josh-A, the flight to Orb, the things that La Crueset had said at Mendel, the Dominion and its Lohegrin cannon, the battle at Jachin Due_, but most of all _his love, his true love, Murrue, _he remembered; _the times that they had spent together, the shameless flirting, the kiss before the battle of Jachin Due, he remembered his promise to her, that he would return, and now at long last it was fulfilled_. "Murrue," the words came out of his mouth involuntarily, "I'm so sorry, I've been away too long."

Murrue and Mu dropped their pistols and ran to embrace one another. He held her as if there was nothing else in the world, he tilted his head down and her head up, and they kissed. It was as if nothing else existed, the burning Windam in the background didn't matter, the other people on the island forest didn't matter, nothing mattered except that they were back together again. Their lips pressed against one another, never wanting to let go… but they had to, when they remembered they were in the middle of a war zone and the fact that she was supposed to be hunting him.

"Ummm…what should we do now," he asked her as they broke away from the kiss, I'm sure they are still looking for me, don't you think?" Murrue went to retrieve the fallen guns and the mask.

"I think that we should play a trick on the others," Murrue said, giddy with excitement and joy, as he handed Mu his mask, "here I'll put it back on and take you in for questioning," she adjusted the mask back on taking great care to ruffle his now long blonde hair. Mu understood what Murrue wanted to do and he agreed with her, it would be funny, "you…you really shouldn't do this you know, Murrue, you are just inviting the others to get back at you for pulling this stunt," he said, but he couldn't keep his face straight as he broke out in laughter.

"Now, now, at least act the part," she said, trying to keep her own face straight, as she restrained him and tucked his pistol away, keeping her pistol pointed at him. "Come on, let's go," she said as they walked back towards where the Archangel and the Minerva were waiting.

Back at the Archangel and the Minerva, the others had gathered after their search. Andy and Talia were discussing the next sweep when they saw Murrue emerge from the edge of the forest, with the prisoner, a tall blonde man dressed in a grey uniform, a mask covering his face and the top half of his face, "I caught him, perhaps we should interrogate him about his involvement with the stolen Gundams and how to treat the girl Shinn brought back with him," she said as she marched Mu towards the rest of the party.

"And now to reveal who is behind the mask," Talia said, as she, Kira, Athrun, Lacus, Andy and her vice-captain Arthur stood around the prisoner. Murrue stood behind all of them trying very hard to stop laughing, as Talia reached down to pull the mask off she couldn't hold her laughter anymore. Talia stopped when she heard Murrue giggle, "What's the matter, Captain Ramius?" she asked, slightly bewildered why Murrue would be laughing when they were trying to interrogate the prisoner. Murrue walked up to the front and decided to pull Mu's mask off herself. She walked up to Neo and removed the mask carefully, taking care to observe the reactions of the people present.

"NANI?" Kira, Athrun, Lacus and Andy shouted at once when they saw Mu's face. They were shocked beyond belief.

"I told you I make the impossible possible," Mu replied, breaking out into laughter, "It's so good to see all of you again."

"What's the meaning of this," Talia asked, when she saw these impossible reactions by her allies.

Murrue explained, "Captain Gladys, we'd," gesturing to the veterans of the last war, "all like you and Arthur to meet Mu La Flaga, Hawk of Endymion, the man who makes the impossible, possible, or so he boasts. But he is a very good friend of ours and my boyfriend, so he's no danger."

The twists and turns were going too quickly for Talia to understand, "So he was reported dead at the end of the last war, but he isn't dead and became a commander of Earth Alliance Forces, but from what I understand the Archangel and its crew were traitors."

"I think that was the reason for the mask, so that the majority of the Earth Alliance didn't know that they were being lead by a traitor to their cause," Mu answered, "Could you guys, please unrestrain me, the rope is starting to chafe at my wrists." All of the veterans of the last war laughed, as Murrue went and untied him.

_A/N: So the big secret is finally revealed…to the characters that is. I hope you all were surprised… or not. LOL. But I do hope you enjoyed reading this chapter because I really enjoyed writing it. Please R and R. Next Chapter: Revelations and Reunions_


	12. THE THEORY: Not a Chapter

THE THEORY (heavy GSD spoilers)

My special present to all my readers...because a lot of the story is predicated on this particular theory...in fact when I created this story at the beginning it was intended to basically be Neo/Mu and Murrue POV only but then I decided that I would expand it to include everyone else's POV as well...so anyway here's a bit of an explanatory note and analysis of the subject:

**Neo Lorrnoke and Mu La Flaga are one and the same person**.

Reasons For:

1. The 2nd intro (Pride) where Murrue seems to recognise someone (Mu) under Neo's mask and the anguished look on Murrue's face in the 2nd intro does tend to highly suggest so. Also in the first ending (Reason)Murrue is kneeling by Neo's mask. In the 2nd ending (Life goes On) Neo and Murrue are paired with each other as the bigger characters

2. Exus is remarkably like Mobius Zero and both of Neo and Mu can hold up against Co-ords in inferior machines. (be it mobile armour or mobile suit)

3. The Newtype flash...well since only he and Creusetexperienced thisSeed and Creuset is most likely definitely dead being hit by Kira's beam saber and then hit by GENESIS...and Neo also has the newtype flash and Fukada did say that Rau and Mu were the last two newtypes (albeit in a fit of stupidity) but that raises the question what is the relationship between Mu and Rey.

4. In episode 50 La Creuset has a newtype flash just before Kira attacks - since Kira is not a newtype who could he have recognised? It could be that Mu was still alive

5. Helmet removed from the Special Edition of Seed - with the helmet intact he could have survived in vaccum for a while

6. Since Mu is a traitor to the EA, obviously he can't return, but he can return under the mask obviously. Jibril would definitely think that Mu/Neo is too much of a valuable resource to waste b/c he is a good trainer of pilots and a good pilot himself plus he has experience of piloting a Gundam (in the case if he was the original Mu - however unlikely that may be)Thus the mask, keeping his identity secret and avoiding any type of scandal and Jibril would think himself clever for it.

7. Sometimes Neo acts like Mu would have acted - some little mannerisms like the "little kitten" point to them being the same person.

8. To people who say that Neo is Mu's clone - why would Blue Cosmos use a clone when it seems to be pretty much what they are standing against...that is genetic manipulation and growing people artificially.

9. Same seiyuu though that doesn't say much, same blood type, "makes the impossible possible", in the CCG Neo is a NT and Neo and Mu cannot appear together on the field though of course the source could be a good photoshop job

10."Because I don't know what's going to happen in the future, we have no choice but to do what we feel is right at the moment. If we find out later that we've made a mistake, then we'll cry and get angry. And then we'll think of the future again..." in Episode 8 Murrue says this, it is quite obvious that she was referring to the previous war...It was a personal feeling of mine that those words would come back to haunt her somehow...and if Neo was Mu that would definitely do it

Reasons Against:

1. The characterisation isn't quite the same, whilst I think that Mu could have undergone a character change, Neo's character is a bit too different, he is rather more serious than Mu...even though in Ep 16 Neo doesact sempaiishto Stellar which Mu did towards Kira in Seed. However, it is also noted that Neo does waste lives in Ep 16 going up against the Minerva something which Mu would not have done

2. Neo works for Jibril who is evil. Mu would never have worked for BlueCosmos if he survived.Of course they could also come up with some sort of weird brainwashing/amnesiac angle. (I used the amnesiac one in my story)

3. How did Mu survive the direct hit from the Lohengrin Cannon? It is highly unlikely that one can survive such an explosion (even in Seed Destiny where the characters reflect on the death...we do sort of see him die again)

Notes and other stuff

1. Rey is clone of Al da Flaga - a totally working version of Creuset in my opinion perhaps perfected by Dullindal

2. If Neo is Mwu - the dramatic tension would be really good

_A/N: So there is evidence for and against this theory...anyway Chapter 11 is done so it will be posted as well but I thought that since this was such a big part I would put it up separately_


	13. Chapter 11: Revelations and Reunions

Chapter 11: Revelations and Reunions

_A/N: Thanks to all my readers...anyway the previous bit basically outlined the whole MuNeo theory which you all should have got by now...Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter and reme,ber to review it. Any comments would be appreciated._

**Chaosdragon: I'm saving DRAGOON for some other suits so Freedom won't have the DRAGOON system.**

**GATX-105B: Thanks for your review I hope you enjoy the rest of the story.**

**Angelofdreams, asga, Lodislord, Blitzryuu:Thanks heaps for your continued support of the story**

Mu and Murrue walked out together hand in hand out of the Minerva's interrogation chamber, when he suddenly felt dizzy, a feeling coming over him, a flash of recognition, "La Creuset is here, I can feel his presence, why did we ally with him, he tried to destroy the whole human race," Mu told Murrue as they rested against the wall.

"La Creuset is dead, Kira killed him and Providence was eliminated by a blast from Genesis, no one could survive a blast from that superweapon," Murrue replied, slightly worried, as they resumed their walk towards the docks and then back to the Archangel

It was then that Mu realized that it could only be the kid in white, the Shinn had named as Rey. "Wait, I need to check on Stellar, and I want to see this Rey kid that Shinn named, who seems to look a lot like La Creuset, according to him," Mu replied, "we should probably make for the medical ward. Stellar will be there. I at least need to check on her condition," Mu said, as they changed directions and walked towards the medical ward to ostensibly visit Stellar.

Athrun met Mu and Murrue outside, just as he was coming away from Dearka's room, where he had just asked Dearka if he would like to transfer aboard the Archangel. Dearka had seemed very pleased about that decision and had rushed to start packing, and to transfer take his Zaku with him, he had quickly ushered Athrun out of the room, with a short thanks, but Athrun could see that he obviously wanted to leave and leave soon. Athrun wondered whether or not he should do the same, but he realised that he had responsibilities to the pilots and to Cagalli, he had promised her that he would get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding ZAFT and he hadn't gotten really far.

"What are you doing here?" Shinn asked as he saw Mu come through the door of the Minerva's sick-bay, he rose and tried to punch Mu but Mu caught his fist in the palm of his hand. "You are from the Earth Alliance, I remember you from when I escaped, you're evil."

"Shinn, stop it, that's an order," Athrun commanded as he stepped through the door.

"Neo," Stellar said as she saw before she remembered that she had run away from the Earth Alliance she was slightly apprehensive and looked to Shinn for reassurance. It was then she noticed that Neo didn't have his mask on, this was the first time I've seen his face she thought.

"Nah, my name is Mu, Mu La Flaga" Mu said a grin on his face, now that he was back to being who he should be, he elaborated, "I had temporary amnesia, so I changed my name, Stellar."

"Hawk of Endymion?" Shinn asked half a challenge implied in his voice, surprise showing on his face, "Some of the older trainees at pilot school said that we were lucky that you were dead and that you were a hotshot pilot." _Of course, I said it was lucky that he was dead; I would have taken him down myself given the chance. Of course, I did fight against him a few times, but no one won._

"Yeah, that's the one," Mu replied nonchalantly, "for now though I would like to stay officially 'dead', so could you not tell anyone?" he asked, Shinn and Stellar. "Take care of her Shinn Asuka," Mu said as he left.

Mu walked down the corridor with Murrue by his side. Suddenly, another flash hit, and he looked up and saw Rey, who looked shocked too, as if they had both been hit by a strong punch. He looked at Rey's face and found it to be an exact copy of La Creuset and therefore his father. Whereas La Creuset had been a failure, this Rey kid looked like a success, somewhere along the way, one of the cloning scientists had succeeded.

"Rey Za Burrel, I presume," Mu said looking at the kid, as he and Murrue walked up to him.

Rey recognised the Captain of the Archangel from before, but the man next to her, the one who had spoken was a stranger, and one in a weird uniform. "Yes that's me," he replied, 'Captain Ramius," he saluted Murrue, the Captain of the Archangel, "and your companion is?" he asked Murrue.

"My close friend, he's interested about your background," Murrue replied, "he's doing some research, if we could talk to you for a moment, she said, as the three of them started walking towards the lounge. Murrue hoped her quick excuse would provide enough cover, she didn't want people especially Earth Alliance people finding out that Mu was alive, and there was a traitor, highly placed in ZAFT that had been feeding information to Blue Cosmos.

"What is he interested about? Most of it is in the ZAFT records database, you could probably get Ensign Hawke to pull it up for you with Captain Gladys' permission," Rey replied, anxious to avoid this sort of questioning by the members of the command of the Archangel. He couldn't refuse as that would have been tantamount to saying that he didn't trust his allies, yet Captain Ramius's 'close friend' didn't seem like a researcher.

"It would be easier if I asked you yourself, it would only take a little time," Mu replied, anxious to find out about this, Rey who looked so much like La Creuset and therefore, his own father.

"Very well, I shall give you some of my time," Rey replied, stiffly, "though I'll only answer the questions that I want to," he continued even more rigid than before; he really didn't like being questioned this way. It was akin to the Spanish Inquisition. He ushered his two guests into the officer's lounge, where there luckily weren't any others around.

Murrue and Mu began by thanking Rey for his time. Mu thought that it would be best if he pretended to be a researcher who was making notes on his subjects. After talking for about half an hour they thanked Rey for his time, saluted and left leaving behind a slightly confused Rey. He wondered why they were so interested in his past, as far as Dullindal his sugar daddy had told him, his parents were dead and Dullindal was his adoptive father, he enlisted in ZAFT and became a pilot, their questions about flashes seemed to be pointless, yes he had felt them but nothing had happened he didn't know why he got them, in fact he had felt the flash whilst on the ship, but as far as he was concerned it was nothing but a curiosity. _Is there something more than what father told me?_

Chairman Dullindal sat on his office on PLANT, _good things are almost ready, once 'Lacus Clyne' is assassinated by Blue Cosmos, the citizens shall be ready to rid the world of Naturals and then I shall rule both Earth and PLANT._ He had failed to have the real Lacus Clyne killed, but she hadn't surfaced ever since and the citizens of PLANT were so taken with the new and improved Lacus, even if the real one showed up acting like before, she would be dismissed as a fraud. And of course, the new Gundam was coming along well, and his pilot was doing well, all itched up for revenge. All was slowly falling into place, FAITH agents were in place to assassinate LOGOS leaders all over the world. They only awaited the last signal, the death of 'Lacus Clyne'.

After transferring back to the Archangel, they sat down to talk. "You promised you would come back," Murrue said now that she and Mu had time alone together, they were in her private stateroom, sitting with each other on the bed, his arms wrapped around her, "how did you survive the direct hit from the Lohegrin cannon?"

"Even I don't know, all I remember is waking up in a laboratory hospital. It is all blank from the time the Strike got hit till I woke again. I have no idea what happened. But what matters is that I'm with you," Mu replied, he could be very serious when he needed to be, even though he preferred to maintain a happy-go-lucky pilot personality, usually. With Murrue, he had flirted with her at first but then it had developed into something more deep, until they had been separated, but now they were ready to pick up where they had left off. He kissed her, her moist lips meeting his, a sweet kiss, no more, no less, they were celebrating their reunion. He kissed her again, this time both their emotions soared, as they embraced, never wanting to let go.

"Work on the three new mobile suits are ready, send the coded transmission to the Archangel for rendezvous and pickup," Colonel Kisaka ordered, from his station in the secret Morgenraete lab just outside Orb, "Erica, load up the suits on the transport ship, we shall take them out onto the rendezvous point ourselves." The three new suits were loaded onto the transport ship, as it sailed out of the hidden lab, emerging from underwater, away from any Orb or Earth Alliance ships it headed towards the rendezvous point.

Lord Jibril brushed the glasses off his table, _Shit! Those damn Co-ordinators_ _fought better and they had help_, images taken from Victoria, showed both the Minerva and the Archangel, _the Archangel should be on our side, being an Orb ship,_ Representative Seyran would have to pay for this. _And to top it all off the Gaia and the Destiny are gone, and Colonel Lorrnoke was missing, it looks like I'll have to take personal control_. He hated having to put himself in the line of fire, his predecessor Murata Azrael had paid for his arrogance with his life. He preferred to manipulate things from the shadows, but circumstance had forced him into the open. Luckily, Project Exodus on the Prometheus Moon base continued to evade PLANT detection, _soon even the Destiny cannot defeat me. _

On board the Archangel, Mu and Murrue walked into the lounge to meet the others and plan their next mission, "you have got to cut your hair, it's way too messy. I prefer how it was," Murrue had said on the way to the lounge.

"Ehh…I'll have it done just for you, the way you like it,' he had replied. They had laughed after this, after almost two years apart they had learned to appreciate every precious moment they had together. They had discussed what Mu would do now that he was back. Murrue had wanted him on the bridge to help her, Mu had wanted to pilot again, as soon as they got any new mobile suits, they could probably salvage the parts for one from the battle.

They entered the lounge and found seats, sitting together with Kira, Lacus and Andy they formed the mission command of the Archangel. "First order of business, is that now we are allied with Athrun, we need to inform them of our next destination just as they will inform us of theirs."

"Actually, the coded Morgenraete message has come through, they say that they are ready," Andy replied, "we'll have to go to the rendezvous point, and we have to leave soon if we are to make it there on time. So that will have to be out next destination."

Murrue shot a quick glance at Mu, now that they had new mobile suits coming in, they wouldn't have to salvage anything. _Oh well, at least he'll be safer in those new suits than he would be in something scrounged from the battle._ "Fine, then we'll proceed to the rendezvous point,"Murrue said. "As soon as this meeting is over, then we shall send the recall to everyone and tell Athrun where we are headed."

"The second order of business is that our suspicion of Chairman Dullindal has been increased. After talking to his adoptive son, Rey on the Minerva, we have come to the conclusion that he is at the very least involved in the research on Mendel and has taken steps to hide his results from us. We think that Rey is the successful version of La Creuset, a successful clone of Mu's father," Murrue continued, "We will have to be more cautious around the Minerva, even though Athrun holds a lot of influence, we cannot rule out betrayal by Dullindal, especially since he seems to want Lacus dead."

Kira and Lacus both agreed with Murrue's frank assessment of Chairman Dullindal's character, "I have always felt that he had more up his sleeve than he had led us to believe. My father always said that the old fox's eyes hid something," Lacus said, "and I think that we are getting close to finding out what." The Archangel slipped underwater again and left for the rendezvous, the Minerva following above water.

Meanwhile around Victoria, Meer Campbell carried by her escort flew towards the recently reconstructed base, _another job, another concert to help encourage ZAFT to fight_. _When am I going to be able to meet the real Lacus Clyne like he promised me he would?_ Suddenly, one of the Gouf mobile suits carrying her Zaku exploded in a shower of fragments, they were under attack or were they? The scanners seemed to pick up no enemy ships or mobile suits. Another of the escorting Gouf mobile suits blew up, this time one to her right. "Abyss, Chaos," she heard the panicked voices over the comm., "we have to get Lacus to safety," the commander of the Gouf unit said.

The Girty Lue dropped its mirage colloid system, having been bought down to Earth by Lord Jibril where he awaited to board it and go to Prometheus. The leader of the Gouf unit sent out a general distress call to Victoria base. "Lacus Clyne is under attack…I repeat…" the voice blanked out as the Abyss used its scythe to cut through the Gouf. The base at Victoria went to red alert, "Send a message out to the Minerva, we will need it." The alarm rang through the recently reconstructed Victoria base, everything was still in disarray but they had to save Lacus. Goufs and Zakus launched from the base, ready to engage the enemy but they were too late. They saw the Chaos fire at the two Goufs holding Lacus's Zaku up, both of them exploding, the pink Zaku tumbled towards the sea, like a beast the Abyss rose up from the sea, its scythe cut the pink Zaku in half, destroying it utterly. Dullindal saw the live video feed from PLANT, he saw the footage as it was being sent to him by Victoria base. He went up and called for a press conference to announce the death of Lacus Clyne. _Soon all will be mine_.

"Lacus Clyne would have wanted us to fight on, she would want us to beat the evil Blue Cosmos and their puppet the Earth Alliance. Let her death inspire us to victory. We have to make sure that there are no more tragedies like Junius Seven, no more tragedies like then assassination of Chairman Zala, no more tragedies like the death of Lacus Clyne who inspired us through her music," people saw Dullindal say, as the interview relayed itself all over the world.

All over the world, FAITH agents pulled out their weapons, guns, knives, poison. A man in a board room, dead, two pools of red emanating from his chest where the FAITH assassin had shot him. A woman's body lying on the floor, her head half chopped off by the FAITH assassin. A whole boardroom, faces convulsed after the poison had been fed through the vents. All over the world FAITH agents executed their missions with savage brilliance. In California, a man dead on the toilet, a bullet hole in his head. Another woman, electrocuted in her bath in Paris. The story repeated itself throughout the world, LOGOS members were being taken out. As they all reported in, Dullindal began assembling the ZAFT fleet and his small fleet of Nazca-class cruisers equipped with neutron stampeders.

_A/N: I wish that I could have written something like this…_

"_Transfer personal control of Gottfried cannon to my station," Lacus ordered. _I'm shooting you down, you piece of fake ZAFT trash. _She had been annoyed at this ZAFT imitation, she calmed herself as her Seed activated, She waited until the Pink ZAKU passed into her sights and fired sending out deadly green darts, obliterating the stupid Pink ZAKU and the fake slut in it._

_Unfortunately that wouldn't have fit in with the story. Oh well, maybe a one-shot will suffice. Dullindal's plan starts to come into fruition and what is the mysterious Project Exodus? Find out in the next Chapter: Exodus _


	14. Chapter 12: Exodus

Chapter 12: Exodus

_A/N: Enjoy the twist last chapter, well you're in for more...Enjoy this chapter and R and R. Prometheus is the name of the new lunar base controlled by the Earth Alliancethat replaced the lunar base, Ptolemaeus._

**WereBear: Unfortunatly I'm not on Cable Internet yet (though I should get it soon)...and thanks for your review  
Lady Une-chan a.k.a. Mirai: Thanks for the review...I hope you enjoy the rest of the story...keep reviewing  
AngelofDreams, asga, lodislord: Thanks for the continuing reviews, it inspires me to write onwards**

New orders came over the communications channel, 'Proceed back to space for the attack on Prometheus, any non-ZAFT ships you meet on the way, destroy them.' Arthur and Talia were in her office, where they had just received the latest orders from Dullindal. They had heard about Lacus Clyne's death, and the declaration of the highest state of war between PLANT and the Earth Alliance.

"Captain Gladys we have to destroy the Archangel, it is in our orders," Arthur said.

"But we are their allies, honour dictates that we should tell them and then leave and the next time we meet, we meet as enemies. ZAFT should not be known as dishonourable," Talia replied, "You also forgot that one of our soldiers is on board the Archangel. And how do you think Commander Zala would react. You have forgotten that he has very close friends on the Archangel." With that she shut out Arthur's protests.

"Ask for Commander Zala and escort him to my stateroom, Arthur," Talia ordered. Arthur saluted and left to fetch Athrun.

The door closed behind him as Athrun entered into Talia's stateroom. "We have new orders that you won't like. You have to face a decision, Athrun," Talia said after he sat down opposite her. She handed him the new orders from Dullindal, he looked at them and then stared up shocked, "even if they aren't Earth Alliance ships, we have to destroy them?" he asked.

"Yes, and that places us in a very precarious situation, as a member of FAITH you negotiated an alliance which we now have to renege on, so you will have to inform them. And you yourself have to make a choice, to go or to stay. With Lacus dead there is nothing keeping you here anymore," Talia replied.

"I'm going then, my commission is done, I returned to see what was wrong in PLANT, and now I know, the leadership is corrupt and self-serving. Dullindal is the enemy of peace, despite all his public actions to the contrary, he has been playing it behind the scenes, he tried to have Lacus killed more than once and succeeded in driving co-ordinators to his banners of war, he is no better than my father and La Crueset," Athrun said, "you should leave ZAFT and join the Archangel and those who truly desire peace for everyone. He knows that I know too much and at any time can become a liability that needs to be taken care of. I'd rather face him in open battle than look over my shoulder at PLANT all the time."

Lord Jibril sat on the Girty Lue now headed for the Prometheus base on the moon to personally handle the final stages of Project Exodus. With him on the bridge were Captain Lee and his two remaining Gundam pilots, Sting and Auel. _Once Project Exodus is finished then the world can start afresh. The chances would have even been better if I hadn't lost Gaia and Destiny and their pilots._ _No matter, Exodus will solve everything._

"I'm staying Yzak, I'll resign my commission again if I have to and if you were smart you would come with me," Dearka almost shouted through the comm. from the Archangel to Yzak on the Minerva. "It is alright for you when your girlfriend is part of ZAFT as well, but mine isn't. I couldn't try to kill her. I would rather be known as a traitor to ZAFT than have to kill the person I love. If you were in my position what do you think that you would do? I only returned with you last time because you dragged me back. This time I'm leaving for good." He was conflicted, having just been told that the Archangel was now declared an enemy, he didn't want to leave, he had sacrificed his love once already for the sake of ZAFT, he wouldn't do it again.

Yzak did not know what to say, part of him knew what Dearka said was right. That part of him warred with the part of him who said that duty was duty even at the cost of love. _I suppose luckily for me, my love is on the same side so I don't have to face that choice. But I do sort of understand how Dearka must feel._

Chairman Dullindal sat in his office as reports from successful FAITH agents filtered in through the private channels. As more LOGOS members died, the more power concentrated to him as one of the remaining members. It was his plan to become the sole member of LOGOS to control the world's weapon production, to destroy the Blue Cosmos and the Earth Alliance and then to disband LOGOS to achieve peace, but his peace. In short, LOGOS would become the scapegoat for all that was bad and when he and FAITH moved in to disband LOGOS, he would be hailed as a hero and have control over the world, to remake it the way he wanted.

The Minerva and the Archangel went their separate ways, the Minerva back to Victoria and then to space, the Archangel to the rendezvous point. Shinn and Stellar sat in the officer's lounge, looking out at the sea, through the small windows, lost in their thoughts. Neither of them knew what to do about the new orders, the Archangel had helped them in Victoria and were dedicated to peace, now the next time they met, they would be deadly enemies. And now, Athrun and Dearka had elected to go over to the Archangel…to be with their loved ones, to watch over them and defend them like he now did with his. He moved next to Stellar and put his arm around her waist, embracing her in a hug. She tilted her head to the side and looked into his eyes, silent thoughts shared.

Part of him knew that the Archangel would be dangerous, the next time they met on the battlefield. Carrying many of the veterans of Jachin Due made the ship dangerous, and their complement of Mobile Suits bettered Minerva's with more Gundams and more experienced pilots. Rumours still abounded many of the leaders of the Clyne faction that hadn't returned to PLANT at the end of the last war had resided in Orb, most likely connected to the Archangel. But he had to focus on Stellar and his mission, when they met the Archangel again then he would decide what to do. For all he had really longed for was peace and safety for those he loved.

Stellar felt Shinn's warm embrace reassure her, it had been a hard time to readjust to the different environment of the ZAFT life. She knew that it was because of Shinn that she was allowed to stay and that the crew had welcomed her, but in Shinn's arms she felt safety, more than she had known. Her thoughts turned towards her old life and Neo, who had turned out not to be Neo…he seemed more friendly than before, more relaxed but she knew that they would not be anything more than friends. It was obvious to her that they wouldn't be anything more than friends now, she had Shinn and he had the Captain Ramius of the Archangel. She knew that the Archangel and the Minerva had split up, she felt sad that the next time they met they would be enemies and there would be nothing but death and suffering. She didn't want to hurt her friends, it was that simple. That's why she hoped that they wouldn't meet the Archangel again.

Kira and Lacus similarly stood in the lounge onboard the Archangel, with his arms wrapped around her waist. Kira and Lacus looked out, they saw the blue sea go by. Both of them strived for peace, and a good life without war. Kira's suspicions about ZAFT had been confirmed by Athrun, indeed they both knew that Dullindal had more up his sleeve, and that he was not inclined to have a democratic peace.

The Minerva loaded itself on the mass-driver at Victoria which had been recently fixed. Captain Gladys looked back reluctantly at the Earth as the Minerva shot out from the end of the mass driver and pushed up into the atmosphere. The rest of the bridge crew were also braced in their seats, as the Minerva pushed up past the atmosphere towards space and their next mission, the assault on Prometheus base.

Athrun and Cagalli were in the pilot's quarters trying to discuss politics in between making out. Cagalli hadn't heard anything from Orb for a while, she looked forward to the debriefing she would receive from Morgenraete agents when they reached the rendezvous point. Athrun worried that PLANT would continue its own path down towards destruction, helped along by Blue Cosmos and the Earth Alliance. But both of their hearts weren't really into discussion, they needed to fulfil their more carnal desires especially after such a long absence.

Milliaria and Dearka sat in another part of the ship, continuing their relationship. They fell into talking about his decision to leave ZAFT again, and this time there would be no going back. At least that is what they told themselves, that they would not let anyone or anything else intervene between them ever again.

ZAFT forces prepared at Armoury One for the assault on Prometheus base on the moon. With Lacus Clyne's death, anti-natural sentiment in PLANT had boiled over, many citizens now demanded that at the very least, naturals be interdicted on Earth and that they shouldn't be allowed into space. Dullindal, to be seen as wanting a peaceful solution decided for the less drastic course of action of interdiction rather than genocide. _Genocide would be left to LOGOS_. The fleet of Nazca-class cruisers, some with neutron stampeders attached to them merely awaited for the Minerva's arrival before launching towards Prometheus. They would be supported by Gouf and Zaku type mobile suits and the Gundams off the Minerva. Dullindal held his new Gundam in reserve it wasn't the time to reveal all his cards yet.

The Archangel surfaced at the rendezvous point to find the Morgenraete delivery ship there waiting. Colonel Kisaka hailed the Archangel over the comm. with a report of the situation in Orb and also specifications on the three brand new Gundam units. He only expressed regret at not being able to find suitable pilots for these machines as all available pilots had been requisitioned by Yuuna for the Earth Alliance, especially after the loss of trust in Yuuna and his father, by Jibril of Blue Cosmos. There were rumours of some big secret mission floating around the highest echelons of Orb's government but Kisaka had not been privy to those secrets. The crew of the Archangel knew that this would lead to an explosion in the intensity in which the war would be fought.

The crew of the Archangel gratefully accepted the 3 new Gundams that had been delivered by Colonel Kisaka who would return to Orb to keep the information flowing where it needed. Murrue said that the Archangel would just have to find its own pilots when it could for the new unit. Murrue and Andy assured the Colonel that they would find the pilots they needed but not many around the world could be trusted. The Archangel slid underwater again coming to rest at the bottom while the command decided where to go and what to do next.

The crew of the Archangel held a quick meeting within the officer's lounge after the delivery of their new Gundams. With the three new units, it was pilots they were short on. Naturally, Mu would pilot one of the new units, and it was quickly decided that Dearka's Gunner Zaku Warrior would be put into deep storage, and that he would pilot the second. They surveyed the three new units designated 'Morgenraete Inc. Gundam X1', 'MIG X2' and 'MIG X3'.

The diagnostics on the three new MIG units came up on the screen as the crew sat down to analyse the new units. Words appeared on the screen accompanied by a picture, the words said MIG X1: a special close combat Gundam, designed especially for anti-mobile suit combat. It carries the 'Trikeros' system off the Blitz Gundam on its right arm but this can be unattached and replaced with an 'Excalibur' anti-ship sword. On the left arm there is a normal mobile shield overlayed with a prototype beam/energy shield based off the Artemis Umbrella allowing Unit X1 to absorb a lot more damage than other suits. Because of the high power drain of this and the Phase Shift Armour, Unit X1 is powered by a nuclear fission reactor equipped with n-jammer cancellers. Even though this is against the treaty, with PLANT being declared a rogue state, the treaty is obviously null and void. Unit X1 also has 2 beam boomerangs and features the CIWS system adulterated from Duel and a 5 barrel missile pod system mounted on its left shoulder. Untit X1 is designated Slayer.

MIG X2: this Gundam is designed for assassination and is used in long-range combat and stealth missions. This unit features the Mirage Colloid system and possesses Phase Shift Armour. Again this is powered by a nuclear fission reactor with n-jammer cancellers. In terms of armament Unit X2 carries a 350mm gun launcher and 94mm high-energy rifle, which can be used independently or combined to form a more penetrating and powerful rifle used for sniping. For closer combat, Unit X2 is also armed with two beam cannons mounted on its shoulders and a CIWS system which features Igellstung machine guns. Unit X2 is recommended for reconnaissance and stealth missions primarily and in open melee as a secondary function. Unit X2 is designated Assassin.

Unit X3's is a multi-purpose combat Gundam, it can fight both ranged and melee. Featuring two M16M-D4 Gunbarrel mobile weapons pods driven by the DRAGOON system, this is designed for the expert pilot. Besides the mobile weapons pods Unit X3 features a smaller version of the 'Judicium' class rifle as well as a laser saber. For protection it has a standard mobile shield. It features both the Baleena beam cannons which swing up from the back to be mounted onto the shoulders when the pods are launched and Rail Rifles which unfold from the hips. As with the other models in this series, Unit X3 features Phase Shift Armour and is powered by a nuclear fission reactor equipped with n-jammer cancellers. Unit X3 is designed to fulfill a wide range of mission parameters. Unit X3 is designated Endymion.

Naturally, Mu took Unit X3 the aptly named Endymion, having many years of experience with mobile armour would allow him to make full use of the mobile weapons pods on the Endymion. The Assassin was assigned to Dearka, having similar performance to the Buster and the Gunner Zaku Warrior, the Assassin would not involve much of a change in Dearka's combat tactics, it would only mean a better machine. Kira and Murdoch would supervise the tinkering of the new OS and give the machines a last check-over before their next mission. The Slayer was moved into deep storage, when they found more pilots, if at all possible, they would pilot the unused machines.

The Minerva headed into space towards the Prometheus base, as soon as they joined; ZAFT commanders ordered the beginning of the attack. Zakus and Goufs and GINNs were launched from the fleet meeting the oncoming Daggers and Murasames and Windams. The two forces encountered each other in a colossal battle, mobile suits being destroyed left and right, the explosions filling space with bright fireworks. Onboard the Minerva, pilots rushed towards the hangar as Meyrin voice came over the comm. relaying the launch orders.

"Shinn Asuka, Destiny launch," Shinn's unit came out of the right hangar, catapulted into space. He began to fire at the oncoming enemy.

"Yzak Jule, Zaku, away," out of the left bay, Yzak's blue custom Zaku launched out of Minerva's hangar.

"Rey Za Burrel, Zaku, go" Rey's white Blaze Zaku Phantom came out of the Minerva to join the battle.

"Shiho Hahnenfuss, Cgue, launching," Shiho's Cgue unit came out of the left docking bay, joining her boyfriend Yzak in battle, as they worked in tandem to destroy Earth Alliance mobile suits.

"Stellar Loussier, Gaia, away" Stellar launched out of the Minerva to join Shinn. He hadn't wanted her to battle, because he argued that she wouldn't be safe, but Stellar felt that she had to join Shinn, to keep him safe and he had conceded that she was right. The Gaia rose to join the Destiny in battle.

"Lunamaria Hawke, Zaku, launching," Lunamaria's custom red Gunner Zaku warrior rose to join the other mobile suits off the Minerva as they lead the assault through the centre of the Earth Alliance formation.

"Captain, Chaos, Abyss, detected here," Arthur informed Talia, pointing to the extreme left of the battlefield, "should we relay to our mobile suit pilots to break off and pursue them?"

Meanwhile deep within the Prometheus Base, Lord Jibril sat looking at the monitor screen showing ZAFT and Earth Alliance forces fighting, as soon as the ZAFT was fully committed the destruction would begin. "Sir, ZAFT is activating their neutron stampeders, they will be ready to fire and in range in within 5 minutes."

"Good, ready the Exodus Cannon, target the Nazca-class ships equipped with neutron stampeders." Deep within the Prometheus base, the results of Project Exodus were finally coming to fruition, the Exodus Cannon was being raised from the depths of the base, as soon as it reached the surface it would fire a superlaser which would obliterate anything in its way. Jibril congratulated himself for his brilliant plan, once the ZAFT fleet was out of the way, the rest of the plan would fall into place, whatever was left of humanity after the whole plan would fall under his rule.

Onboard the ZAFT _Nazca _class ships, their captains prepared to fire neutron stampeders at Prometheus base, "one minute to full charge," the voice of the ensign at the weapons console informed his captain, "thirty seconds…twenty…ten, nine, eight…"

The Exodus cannon emerged right in the middle of the Prometheus base and fired its superlaser at the ZAFT fleet of neutron stampeder ships. Bright green beams were focused on a reflective dish, increasing the power of the resultant beam many times. The Exodus Cannon took aim and fired, a green beam straight at the _Nazca_ class ships as they reached full power. The garland of explosions ripped through the ZAFT fleet, as the combined explosive power of the fully charged neutron stampeders and the beam of the Exodus cannon obliterated everything in its path. Debris shot out in all directions, hitting mobile suits both on the Earth Alliance and ZAFT sides. Luckily, the Minerva was not hurt but they had to change tactics and order an all out assault before the Exodus Cannon could fire again.

Yzak and Shinn lead the Minerva's mobile suits towards the Prometheus base, clearing the enemy mobile suits out of the way as they lead the charge on the Exodus Cannon. Suddenly, the sensor board on Destiny beeped, Chaos and Abyss were leading more mobile suits to stop the attack on the Exodus Cannon. Shinn steeled himself as he brought Destiny around to engage the enemy.

_A/N: What do you guys think of the new Gundams made by Morgenraete (MIGs)? Anyway, the next Chapter The battle of Prometheus_


	15. Chapter 13: The Battle of Prometheus

Chapter 13: Battle of Prometheus

_A/N: Yeah, sorry it took soooooo looong to update! I've been busy with Uni assessements but they are over for now. Spo here's Chapter 13. And yes, this fic will actually be finishing soon so don't forget to read and review!_

**Welcome to wellduh..., heller, jordan- hope you enjoy the rest of the fic**

**Thanks asga, Lodislord and chaosdragon again for your reviews.**

The Equatorial Alliance troops moved in towards Kaohsiung base, the last of the neutral nations left, with Scandinavia and Orb both being taken over the Earth Alliance and ZAFT now declaring the Earth an enemy, it was left to the Equatorial Alliance to secure a mass driver to let the Archangel launch into space. They knew that Blue Cosmos agents had moved into place during the past few weeks, ready to stage a coup. Orb Intelligence had leaked that bit of information in hopes of stopping the war. The Archangel was nearby and only needed to be contacted when the rebellion against ZAFT started, they would go in and crush both ZAFT and Blue Cosmos. It was almost the last chance of stopping the war.

On Kaohsiung base alarms sounded as the Blue Cosmos plan was put into action, many of the hangars containing ZAFT mobile suits were destroyed by the strategically placed bombs. Equatorial Alliance observers looked on and the General flicked his communicator and set it to contact the Archangel. He pressed the one-time use communicator, which sent a coded message to the Archangel requesting its assistance on the recommendation of Morgenraete. The woman who had given him this communicator had stressed that it should be destroyed as soon as it was used. He dropped it onto the ground and put his boot to the communicator.

Onboard the Archangel, Milliaria and Dearka who were on the bridge together while she was on duty broke out of a kiss as the communications board beeped with a message from Erica. Milliaria flicked on the ship's comm. system and issued a condition red alert, it was _the_ mission that Colonel Kisaka had told them about, to get into space and bring peace hopefully, by toppling the corrupt leadership of PLANT and stopping the EA army from committing genocide again. Orb would take care of itself once the war was over, Cagalli would be welcomed back and the Seyrans would be deposed. It was known that Jibril of Blue Cosmos had taken a shuttle to space from Panama base recently. As the crew took their position, Milliaria kissed Dearka for good luck as he went to join the other pilots in the ready-room. "Ascend to the surface," Murrue ordered, as the pilot brought the Archangel up, bursting through the surface of the ocean and then flying towards the given coordinates nearby, as it sped through the sky.

Meanwhile, Earth Alliance troops, unaware of the imminent approach of the Archangel and the Equatorial Alliance troops battled with the remaining ZAFT troops in possession at Kaohsiung. Daggers and GINNs engaged each other in combat as Earth Alliance mobile armour engaged ZAFT mobile armour. The General of the Equatorial Alliance continued to watch from his position as ZAFT and Earth Alliance troops continued to destroy each other in battle, he awaited the arrival of the Archangel before launching the assault.

Meanwhile, the battle at Prometheus raged as the Minerva's pilots continued to engage the Earth Alliance mobile suits. Yzak and Shiho broke off in tandem as they worked as a wingpair engaging the enemy Windams and Murasames. Shinn and Stellar attacked the Chaos which had detached its weapons pods which were keeping Stellar occupied while Shinn attacked the Chaos with its anti-ship sword. Lunamaria and Rey faced off against the Abyss as they had done many times, performing complex manoeuvres which kept the Abyss off balance.

Shinn drew the Destiny's anti ship sword as he clashed with the Chaos which had drawn its own beam saber in response, the two Gundams collided in a titanic battle, as the pilots pushed themselves past pain barriers, their sabres clashing together in a spectacular light show. Shinn pushed hard, needing to get through to the Exodus Cannon before it fired again. He pushed the Destiny harder, trying to weave away from the Chaos and to get through. He watched as Stellar joined the attack, her beam sabre swinging downwards at the Chaos as Shinn pushed with the Destiny, the Chaos had to fire its jets to propel itself away from Stellar's attack. The pods launched off Chaos' back and began to shoot at the Gaia.

Lunamaria fired her rifle at the oncoming Abyss, the red and white beam easily dodged by it, as returned fire with its own cannons. Lunamaria spun her Zaku around in a manoeuvre which avoided the Abyss's fire and gave her a superior position behind some spinning debris to fire again. Meanwhile, Rey's white Zaku fired its missiles at the Abyss in a rain of explosions as it hit…the phase shift armour which blocked most of the damage, but it did manage to put the Abyss on the back-foot for the moment and rey took advantage, firing again, scoring another hit with his beam rifle, this time actually doing significant damage to the Abyss's left arm. The Abyss returned fire, at Lunamaria, as it hit the piece of debris she was hiding behind, she spun her Zaku into a tight spin, falling away from the now exploding debris which fanned out in a pattern of superheated metal.

Yzak's Slash Zaku Phantom cut through an Earth Alliance Windam as he and Shiho led part of the ZAFT forces towards the Exodus Cannon. Another Windam rose to battle him, it fired at his suit the beam coming close to hitting as he dodged to the right. The ZAFT forces fired their beam rifles at the enemy Windams. The battle raged on as Zakus and Goufs blew up left and right, under the sustained fire of Earth Alliance Windams and Daggers. ZAFT forces returned fire as the Exodus cannon began to charge for another shot. Panicked orders to hurry came over the comm. systems of ZAFT pilots telling them to press the attack. However, EA forces were holding firm.

The Equatorial Alliance general watched as the Archangel flew overhead and signalled the beginning of what he hoped would be the end of the war. Onboard the Archangel the pilots prepared to launched out of the Archangel's hangar bay. Now with twice the number of pilot's the Archangel was primed for combat.

"Kira Yamato, Freedom, launching," the upgraded Freedom launched into the sky, a herald of future peace.

"Athrun Zala, Saviour, away," The red Saviour launched out of the hangar joining the Freedom in the sky as they sped towards the battle.

"Cagalli Yula Attha, Strike Rouge, launching," the red and white Strike Rouge launched from the hangar.

"Andrew Waltfield, Murasame, let's go," the golden Murasame rose in jet-form into the sky.

"Mu La Flaga, Endymion, going out," the new Gundam rose to join the others, its brilliant colour glinting in the sunlight.

"Dearka Elthman, Assassin, away," the sleek black Assassin rose into the sky, leaving its mirage colloid off for this assault, with its two rifles separated.

With all the Gundams launched, the Archangel itself prepared for battle, "Igellstung ready, Gottfried ready to fire," Lacus said to Murrue as the Archangel approached firing range, "Acquire target one," Murrue ordered, "fire on my mark." The Archangel approached the Kaohsiung base where ZAFT and Earth Alliance forces fought.

The Archangel's flight of Gundams blazed through the opposing military force. Onboard the Endymion Mu felt nostalgic as he flew to protect the one he loved again. The last time he had flown out he hadn't come back for a long while; he vowed to himself that it would never happen again. The Endymion charged in, carefully of course, as it launched its mobile weapons pods, firing its beam rifle at the distracted enemies. He brought the Endymion into an inverted manoeuvre to dodge incoming fire as his weapons pods continued to rain fire on the enemies.

Dearka's Assassin Gundam fired at the enemy with both its rifles. A rain of beams descended on the enemy mobile armour, as the Assassin flew past the main ground battle, he saw the Murasame and the Saviour in jet mode flash by criss-crossing in an elaborate pattern, bombarding the ZAFT and Earth Alliance troops on the ground, the explosions producing a festoon of light. The golden Murasame looped around in a tight loop for another pass, while the red Saviour unfolded into its mobile-suit mode, firing its beam rifle at the Earth Alliance Navy. Strike Rouge and Freedom charged with protecting and leading the Equatorial Alliance troops moved slowly, the army advancing as they mopped up the rest of the enemy forces from both sides. Equatorial Alliance engineers moved into the base, quickly capturing the mass driver and preparing to launch the Archangel into space.

Back at Prometheus the assault on the Exodus Cannon proceeded. ZAFT forces hurtled towards Prometheus, trying to destroy the cannon before it could fire again. GINNs and Daggers engaged in a deadly dance, the intensity of the beam rifles matched by the intensity of the explosions. More and more orphans continued to be made at Prometheus. The capital ships did not fare much better, the remaining ZAFT _Nazca_-class cruisers were under heavy sustained attack by the Girty Lue and Earth Alliance _Archangel_-class battleships. ZAFT Zakus and Goufs continued to battle Earth Alliance Windams. Slowly but surely, the ZAFT forces began to overwhelm the Earth Alliance, quicker than new troops could be launched from Earth.

Dullindal, having found out that the Archangel had launched into space issued a all-hands recall to space, all ZAFT mobile suit forces began to launch into space from all ZAFT bases on Earth, leaving behind only mobile armour to defend ZAFT assets on Earth. It was time to send a fleet to intercept the Archangel as it headed towards Mendel.

Destiny continued to battle Chaos. Destiny whirled around boosting away from Chaos as it changed from close combat to ranged combat, Shinn fired the Destiny's beam rifle at Chaos which transformed into jet mode, dodging the rifle beam as it fired back. The two Gundams continued the ranged dance, as they weaved around and fired, beam rifle beams spraying out left and right, at each other and at other enemies as well. Shinn felt the urgency of pressing the attack weigh on his mind, as updates from the ZAFT command sensor stations continued to filter through, updating the status of the enemy's Exodus Cannon.

Gaia drifted forward, as Stellar tried to deal with the two mobile weapons pods launched by Chaos, she brought the Gaia into a reverse-throttle hop throwing off the targeting of the weapons pods for a second, and then she throttled forward all full speed, drawing the Gaia's beam sabre as she centred on one of the weapons pods. The beam sabre sliced through the weapons pod, shearing it in half, it exploded sending fragments out which did no particular damage, as the Gaia passed through avoiding the return fire of the second weapons pod which had centred on her again. _One to go and then that Cannon…Shinn and I will destroy it to make it safe._ Stellar had matured a lot since she had started seeing Shinn, she wasn't as scared anymore. Centring on the second weapons pod off the Chaos Stellar drew her beam rifle and fired, once again engaged in combat.

Lunamaria and Rey continued to battle the Abyss. The Abyss opened its guns and fired again, its damaged left arm trailing a bit as the last cannon failed to fire, the other 5 guns fired, however, singeing on the two Zakus, decreasing their manoeuvrability slightly. They continued to twist in space while battling each other to the death. The Abyss opened its full array of guns again, as it fired at Lunamaria and Rey. Lunamaria spun her red Zaku towards the Abyss, a desperate tactic as she bought her long-range rifle ramming into the Abyss at point-blank range and fired, the explosion tore away half of the Abyss' right arm, leaving it unable to fight, but Lunamaria was caught in the backwash of the explosion, her rifle broken beyond repair and her Zaku damaged, limping back towards the Minerva. "Rey, go ahead, take down the Exodus Cannon," she said as her Zaku limped out of the battlefield. Similarly, the Abyss withdrew its right arm destroyed, its left-arm trailing behind half-broken. Lunamaria was happy, she had improved her skill over the last year and she knew the Earth Alliance command would be unhappy because she had disabled the Abyss for only moderate damage to her mobile suit.

The attack on the Exodus cannon continued, as the ZAFT mobile suits forces lead by Yzak and Shiho punched through the defensive screen of the Earth Alliance Windams and Daggers, only to be confronted with Earth Alliance Gerzu-Gehs which promptly shielded the area around the Exodus cannon. The ZAFT mobile suit troops drew their close combat weapons as they prepared to attack the Gerzu-Gehs guarding the Exodus Cannon with its shields. The Tannhauser cannons couldn't break through and the neutron stampeders were all gone. It was up to the mobile suit pilots to destroy it. He saw Rey's Blaze Zaku Phantom join his sortie against the Gerzu-Gehs by taking out the enemy Windams and Daggers which had set up a defensive screen. Rey fired his beam rifle at a Dagger destroying it and then he whirled around to destroy it again, a thought crossing his mind, _where is that Earth Alliance commander, I saw the Chaos and the Abyss, their commander must be near by_. _But I can't seem to recognise him, unless…but that doesn't make any sense._ He shrugged that thought away, he had to concentrate on the battle now, speculating about the enemy commander's whereabouts could come later and without their commander, they were a lot less effective.

The Archangel blazed through the atmosphere, its first return to space since the battle of Jachin Due. The crew felt a bit of nostalgia as they blasted through the clouds into the upper atmosphere. Last time they had launched into space it was to stop the war and now they had to do it all over again. The Archangel punched through the clouds as the blackness of space loomed up ahead.

Lunamaria docked inside the Minerva sitting at the back of the battlefield as the Minerva tried to defeat all the Earth Alliance Windams and Daggers that actually strayed that far out, most of the enemy suits were concentrating on stopping the ZAFT attack led by Commander Jule. Lunamaria jumped out of the cockpit onto the deck as the mechanics set about fixing her Zaku, and equipping it with the close-combat gear, she needed that to go head to head with the Alliance Gerzu-Gehs which possessed energy shields which blocked beam attacks.

The battle continued as Lunamaria launched again, her Zaku armed with a shield and a beam rifle which could be exchanged for an axe stored inside the shield. She rushed back towards the main battle to help the attack on the Exodus Cannon. Meanwhile, inside the Exodus Cannon's main station, Jibril sat calmly, the Gerzu-Gehs stopped any sort of bombardment by ZAFT capital ships and the Windams and Daggers were using cover provided by the Gerzu-Gehs to stop the ZAFT troops. Even though ZAFT troops had gained some ground, they were not going to be there in time to prevent the second firing, aimed right at PLANT headquarters.

Shinn and Stellar fought with increasing desperation as even they could not break through the wall of Earth Alliance mobile suits. Every time he got close to fighting a Gerzu-Geh, those annoying Daggers and Windams would pop up and scatter fire at him, forcing him back, it would be too slow. "One minute remaining to Exodus recharge completion," the now panicked ZAFT command voice came over the comm. system of the Destiny. Shinn pressed even harder but his hurried state led him to overlook any other strategy but to weave and press forward. Similarly, Stellar in the Gaia knew that if the Exodus Cannon fired again, people would die. Even though she had lost a lot of her fear of dying, she knew that other people would die, especially Shinn who would fight to the bitter end and most likely get caught in the beam and be disintegrated.

Shinn panicked as the seconds ticked down towards firing time, _it's going to fire again if I don't do anything about it. I can't let innocent people be hurt again. _Anger and frustration built up in him and welled to unbreakable limits, and then he felt a sudden calm rush over him, as his pupils dilated and he entered Seed Mode. Suddenly, his body functioned like a machine, making complex calculations within milliseconds, responding to the enemy fire as he weaved in closer and closer.

Stellar saw Destiny suddenly, dive down towards the Exodus Cannon spiralling downwards, doing next to impossible manoeuvres, as it dodged enemy fire and bought its anti-ship sword up, ready to behead the Gerzu-Gehs. _Shinn, I have to follow him, in any way I can, I won't let him die, my rock, my saviour, my lover_. She felt a strange sensation wash over her, as a pink-purple seed appeared in front of her, her eyes becoming blank, as the Gaia suddenly dived downwards following the Destiny.

Lunamaria saw the Destiny and the Gaia weave downwards towards the Exodus Cannon expertly avoiding the fire of the enemy mobile suits, she knew that Shinn and Stellar weren't normally that good, she realised that Shinn had done something special again, only ten seconds left she saw on the timer, as Destiny's anti-ship sword swung downwards, decapitating the Gerzu-Geh…causing shield coverage to flicker once and then disappear, she saw the Destiny charge towards the Exodus Cannon, Gaia following through the hole as Destiny charged towards the cannon, she saw the timer tick down, five…four…three…the Destiny was fired upon, but the Gaia blocked the shots returning fire, as ZAFT mobile suits poured through the hole to destroy the enemy shield units from the inside, where they were unprotected, she flew towards the now widening gap in shield coverage…two…the Destiny was almost there, time was almost up, the Destiny began to thrust its anti-ship sword forwards…one…the focusing lasers began to focus on the central aperture, aimed at PLANT headquarters, the Destiny's sword hitting below the firing mechanism, overloading the Exodus Cannon as firing mechanism rocked on its base, it fell and pointed down, and then it exploded a terrific explosion which blew all the mobile suits within the vicinity back…the Destiny and the Gaia held each other charging away at maximum speed propelled by the destruction of the Exodus Cannon, which had fired its half-finished focused beam downwards, drilling a hole into the surface of the moon. Luckily, it had not been at full power or the moon would have been blown into billions of tiny superheated fragments, instead only a small hole was drilled into the surface.

The ZAFT forces regathered away from the battle as they heard the withdrawal order given by the Chairman. The Earth Alliance forces, without a leader were in disarray, but then a coded message came from Blue Cosmos…or rather from LOGOS, which ordered the Earth Alliance to regroup and be prepared for another assault on its enemies. The Archangel reached space safely, and was now headed towards Heliopolis 2 where they would start the plan to topple Chairman Dullindal.

_What do the "White Knights" of the Archangel have in stall for Dullindal...read the next chapter to find out._


	16. Chapter 14: The Gang's All Back Together

Chapter 14: The Gang's All Back Together

**Fuji: Welcome to this fic! I also found it annoying that the Fukada decided to break Dearka and Miriallia up!**

**Tandiien: Sorry about the spelling, Japanese R's and L's sound very alike so it is easy to get confused...also I'm a big romantic**

**wellduh: Welcome! Hope you enjoy the fic!**

**LodisLord, Chaos Dragon, RVD: Thanks for you reviews and sorry that I couldn't update sooner...work piled up.**

On videoscreens all over the world, the music of Fields of Hope started to play, the screens were black as a voice emerged, the voice of Lacus Clyne. Video sprang up on the screen as the seemingly 'dead' Lacus Clyne appeared on screens all over the world. People started to stare at the video screens, on PLANT, people were surprised, they had thought that Lacus had been dead but it was definitely her, in fact some realised that after the first war, the new Lacus had acted differently. "Mina-san, I, Lacus Clyne am not dead, I knew that someone was trying to kill me so I arranged a fake stand-in who has been acting as me for the past year, while I tried to find out who was really trying to kill me. That is why my performances have been changed to cover as best as possible the difference in singing voice. Unfortunately, my brave stand-in was killed on Earth. However, when she was killed, the person who wanted me dead unwittingly revealed himself to be Chairman Dullindal of PLANT. Citizens of the world, Chairman Dullindal still wants to kill me, when he found out that I was still alive and that the fake stand-in was killed, he sent elite ZAFT troops to where I was hiding. Only by the brave actions of the crew of the Archangel did I survive the attack. Citizens, I urge you all to put down your grudges and open your hearts in forgiveness and to force Chairman Dullindal and the leaders of the Earth Alliance to stand-down, to end the war and bring back peace, the peace we all laboured for in the last war. We cannot repeat history again, we must move onwards towards the future."

Lacus, transmitting from Heliopolis 2 finished her message and began to sing 'Fields of Hope' "konna ni tsumetai tobari fu no fukaku de, anata wa hitori de nemutteru," her voice resounding through all the videoscreens as people stopped on the street to look at her, "inori no utagoe sabishii nohara wo, chiisana hikari ga terashi-teta," everyone was entranced by the new song, heralding the return of Lacus Clyne to the stage, particularly on PLANT where ZAFT military commanders under the direction of Chairman Dullindal tried to stop the transmission, issuing statements that this was a faked recording and that Lacus was really dead, "anata no yume wo miteta, kodomo no youni waratteta," Lacus continued to sing from her heart, from within Heliopolis 2, "natsukashiku mada tooku sore wa mirai no yakusoku."

"itsuka midori no asa ni itsuka tadoritsukeru to ,fuyugareta kono sora wo shinjiteiru kara, Fields of hope," the song continued to roll out in PLANT and on Earth, as the citizens of PLANT marched towards the PLANT headquarters, joined by some of the politicians, demanding the immediate resignation of Chariman Dullindal.

"umarete kita hi ni dakishimete kureta, yasashii ano te wo sagashi-teru," Some ZAFT troops joined the demonstration and began to clear traffic, the flood of people increasing second by second, minute by minute, as Lacus's song continued to damn Dullindal as she continued to sing, she destroyed his plan to rule through subtle power.

"inori no utagoe hitotsu kiete, mata hajimaru tayorinaku setsunaku tsudzuku," on board the Minerva, Shinn and Stellar watched Lacus sing, knowing in their hearts that she was right, that the war had to stop and that Dullindal for all his outward gestures of peace and friendship were there to hide his secret desire to become the supreme ruler of humanity. Shinn felt that he and Stellar had to leave as soon as possible, the Archangel was not the real enemy, the enemy was Dullindal. He had wanted to wield power to protect the innocent, not to hurt them; he vowed inwardly that he would not be used like this by anyone from now on.

"itsuka midori no asa e subete no yoru wo koete, sore wa tada hitori tsutsu mitsukete yuku basho dakara, ima ga tada kono mune de anata wo atatametai," FAITH units continued to fly towards Heliopolis 2 to destroy the Archangel. Dullindal stood onboard his flagship, as it charged towards Heliopolis 2. He was quietly confident that once he squashed the problem represented by the Archangel everything would work out fine.

"natsukashiku mada tooi yasuragi no tame ni, Fields of hope," The crew of the Archangel prepared for battle against whatever would come, knowing that what remained of the ZAFT fleet would come to destroy them, including the Minerva. The mobile suit pilots were undergoing the last briefing given by Andy and Mwu, as they prepared to take on at least thirty times their number of mobile suits, plus whatever extra capital ships there would be.

"natsukashiku mada tooi yakusoku no nohara, Fields of Hope," the last three words faded away, repeating themselves as Lacus personally urged both armies to drop their arms and make peace. With the transmission ended, Lacus Clyne resumed her position on the Eternal as it prepared for battle.

On the FAITH flagship, Dullindal fumed inwardly, but remained calm on the outside. Lacus Clyne and her cohorts had managed to pierce through his ploy to subvert the world through LOGOS and FAITH, now he had to fall back on the alternate plan, to rule by force and that meant destroying the Archangel and all resistance against him both external and internal. Dullindal knew that he now had to play this final gambit if he was to win, the veterans of Jachin Due and their allies were starting gathering support quickly, both from Earth Alliance forces that remained and from elements of PLANT. The pilot of the Providence 2 was ready for battle and this would the perfect chance to remove all his problems in one fell swoop. Dullindal smiled, knowing that victory would soon be his. Any damage done to his image by Lacus Clyne could be undone once she was really dead.

He retired to his office and pulled out the secret LOGOS communication device that would transmit the attack order, whatever was left of the Earth Alliance fleet was on its way to Heliopolis 2 to destroy the Archangel, he planned to throw those forces at the Archangel in the first wave, keeping his FAITH forces back, out of sensor range until they were destroyed and then FAITH forces would wipe out any resistance.

The Archangel had expected the ZAFT fleet to come, but when the sensors board on the Archangel beeped, the suits were identified as Windams and Daggers, in attack formation, it seemed as if the Earth Alliance was on its way. Murrue ordered the launch of all six Gundams onboard and raised the alert status to condition red. Archangel's crew ran to combat station as the pilots ran into the hangar from their briefing, jumping into their Gundams getting ready to launch. Kira's Freedom and Athrun's Saviour were lined up by the crew on the linear catapults, one on the left bay and the other on the right, Miriallia gave clearance for the launch.

"Kira Yamato, Freedom, launching," the Freedom went into space, grim determination outlining Kira's face as it was left to him and his friends to save the world again, this time he would do it right. Kira let the calm wash over him as he entered Seed Mode.

"Athrun Zala, Saviour, launching," he followed Kira out, knowing that PLANT leadership was corrupt and needed to be put down before any real peace could be achieved. To prevent any more tragedies from happening he would pilot to the best of his abilities, to fight the real enemy which had been identified now he would do his best. Athrun entered Seed Mode as smoothly as Kira did, now that he had his mind sorted out.

The hangar was a buzz of activity as the next two suits were bought to launch positions, Mu saluted Murrue and the bridge crew over the comm. as the Endymion was bought into position, along with the Murasame. Launch clearance was given as they prepared to be fired out of the hangar

"Mu La Flaga, Endymion, going out," he made a grim promise to himself that he would not leave Murrue again as the Endymion shot out into space.

"Andrew Waltfield, Murasame, let's go," the gold and black Murasame activated its phase-shift armour as it flew into space, turning around to engage the enemy in its mobile suit mode.

The last two Gundams were quickly put into position for launch, as Miriallia gave the launch orders, Dearka blew her a phantom kiss in his mind, as he concentrated on the battle to come.

"Cagalli Yula Athha, Strike Rouge, launching," equipped with the ISWP pack, giving it the most firepower and flexibility to handle any combat situation.

"Dearka Elthman, Assassin, away," the sleek black Gundam catapulted out of the Archangel's hangar, joining the fight.

At PLANT headquarters, with people clambering to enter the meeting chamber, a hastily convened Cabinet of PLANT chaired by Ezaria Jule passed a unanimous motion to impeach Chairman Gilbert Dullindal and to withdraw the ZAFT fleet headed towards Heliopolis 2. Orders were issued to the ZAFT forces to withdraw and return to PLANT and that Chairman Dullindal no longer had any authority. The first ZAFT ships to withdraw were fired upon by FAITH forces, loyal to Dullindal and destroyed, a small firefight broke out between the ZAFT and FAITH forces, as ZAFT forces withdrew, breaking away from the FAITH fleet, the Minerva after receiving the order from PLANT saw FAITH forces fire on the withdrawing ZAFT forces, Captain Gladys opened a comm. channel to Dullindal, "Chairman, stop firing on our own forces," Talia requested, shocked both at the news that Lacus Clyne was still alive and that she had accused Gilbert of trying to kill her. Arthur also refused to believe that the chairman had tried to kill Lacus Clyne.

Dullindal ordered the FAITH forces to cease fire, the Archangel was the important target, they needed every resource they had to defeat the Archangel and its complement of mobile suits. He said that he alone knew the truth, that Lacus Clyne had been held by Earth Alliance troops and forced to say what she had said, and that FAITH would rescue her.

Shinn and Stellar heard the PLANT council's announcement of the impeachment of Dullindal, which only confirmed to them that Dullindal was in fact evil. Yzak and Shiho both saw his mother on the communications screen publicly announcing the immediate expulsion of Chairman Dullindal and the appointment of an interim chairman. This gave him the excuse to leave the Minerva if he wished to return to ZAFT and not have to face his friends in battle. Yzak and Shiho walked towards the hangar, ready to take her mobile suits and leave as his was severely damaged, they met Shinn and Stellar on the way, who were similarly leaving, but they were leaving for the Archangel, to bring Gaia and Destiny over to the side headed by the Archangel who wished for genuine peace.

Meanwhile, the Archangel was engaged in battle with the LOGOS troops, led by the Girty Lue. The Archangel fired its Lohengrin cannons at the Earth Alliance troops who were directed by LOGOS to destroy the Archangel. The Lohengrin cannons found their mark obliterating two of the opposing capital ships in a devastating light show. Murrue directed the Archangel CIWS and missile bays to fire as the Earth Alliance reply came. The Archangel broke hard to port and upwards away from the incoming fire as it fired its Gottfried cannons destroying the incoming missiles. The Gundams off the Archangel flew straight towards the Earth Alliance fleet, Kira and Athrun in Seed Mode devastated any opposition mobile suits, hacking off limbs of the Daggers and Windams and even the Gerzu-Gehs, as they steamrolled the enemy into submission, taking care not to kill anyone in the process.

Dearka sat back behind the other Gundams, using its long-distance rifle to destroy the enemy capital ship armaments and engines, preventing loss of life wherever possible. As he picked off more targets, he saw that enemy mobile suits were charging towards him, he switched modes, breaking up his rifle into its two smaller components for closer combat. He fired while dodging, taking out enemy suits two at a time, but the enemy still kept coming. He saw the Murasame and the Endymion flash by strafing the enemy suits while being chased by their own enemies, he saw the tactic, he fired on the enemies which were oblivious to his position, they were too focused on their enemies, their lack of situational awareness would cost them their lives. The Strike Rouge fired at its enemies, destroying them, as the Earth Alliance fleet came rampaging in, its Windams charging towards the Archangel's forces.

ZAFT forces were ordered to start to press the attack, followed by the FAITH forces. The Minerva led the ZAFT contingent which still took orders from Dullindal. Shinn and Stellar were ready to launch, followed by Shiho who had smuggled Yzak onboard her mobile suit without any of the crew noticing, they would break off at the first opportunity to PLANT to sort out this mess.

Onboard the Minerva, Meyrin began to count down the launch sequence for the Minerva's mobile suits.

"Shinn Asuka, Destiny, launching," the Destiny launched away into space awaiting the Gaia and then starting to run to the other side.

"Stellar Loussier, Gaia, launching," the Gaia flew out next to the Destiny and then suddenly they boosted forward out of formation and began to fly towards the Archangel.

Meanwhile, on the bridge Arthur was so surprised when he saw the Gaia and the Destiny break and run towards the Archangel that he didn't notice the beeping of the sensor array until he heard Captain Gladys ask him what it was, when he saw the sensor screen, he saw that there were now six enemy Gundams and an enemy capital ship. On the screen, up came the Freedom, the Saviour, the Murasame and the Strike Rouge as well as two unknowns which he reported to Captain Gladys.

"Shiho Hahnenfuss, launching," Shiho and Yzak launched together and looped around the back of ZAFT forces, where she would be "leading" the rearguard of ZAFT forces. Her sensors picked up more ZAFT forces in the direction that they would have to head to get to PLANT and those forces were stationary, there was no way to get independent confirmation of the news yet, they would have to wait a while.

Dearka saw Shiho's suit launch from the hold of the Minerva, he knew that he would have to fight, possibly to the death, against his best friend and his best friend's girlfriend, which was something that was quite undesirable in his mind. He had thought that Lacus Clyne's public denouncement of Dullindal would be sufficient to convince the Minerva to change sides, but it seemed as if that wasn't enough. Taking mental note of the position of the enemy he switched on the Assassin's mirage colloid and took position, ready to shoot.

Shinn was frantically trying to hail the Archangel's forces, as they flew in a straight line towards the Archangel. He tried the international distress channel, even though that would betray his intentions to ZAFT forces, it was the best thing he could do now, he sent a message out, changing his and Stellar's allegiance to the crew of the Archangel.

Onboard the Archangel, Miriallia put Shinn's message up on the visual display, text displayed itself on the screen, as the crew read, "Shinn Asuka hailing the Archangel, the Destiny and the Gaia are now on the side of the Archangel, don't shoot, we want to stop the war too. And I also publicly denounce Chairman Dullindal, all ZAFT forces the real enemy is the disgraced chairman and FAITH. Shinn Asuka, out." A cheer broke out from the crew of the Archangel, they were forces that they needed desperately, without enemy Gundams the battle became more even.

Dullindal fumed as FAITH officers brought news of Shinn's message, he would be forced to launch his last weapon now, "we attack on my command, all forces launch," he ordered as the FAITH forces started their ships forward. After the defection of the Destiny and the Gaia, the ZAFT forces were steeped in confusion. Shiho and Yzak decided that they would run, not away, as the saw the FAITH fleet approach, but to the Archangel. Her CGUE unit swung forward, shooting past the Minerva, Yzak dialled up Athrun's comm. and declared his intention to defect.

On the Minerva, the whole bridge crew was shocked that Shinn and Stellar had left and gone over to the side of the Archangel. Arthur regarded it as betrayal of the worst kind. The PLANT council continued to send out messages saying that Dullindal was not in charge anymore and that ZAFT forces would be recalled to headquarters, some more ZAFT ships started to peel off to return to PLANT and await further orders, skirting away from the battlefield and then turning back towards PLANT. Captain Gladys still had three left on her ship when a panicked cry came from the door to the bridge, "Captain Gladys, Commander Jule is gone and it seems as if he was in the CGUE with Lieutenant Hahnenfuss, and now they've gone over to the other side." That left the Minerva's mobile suit contingent down to two, the Blaze Zaku Phantom and the Gunner Zaku Warrior.

"Launch the last two mobile suits, in defensive positions only, shield the bridge and prepare for combat but stop all ZAFT forces, we should attack in numbers," Captain Gladys ordered, a delaying tactic to give time for her to consider the Minerva's next move. On one side was the Archangel with its complement of high-powered mobile suits, what it lacked in quantity it certainly made up in quality. On the other side, her current side, was ZAFT forces and FAITH forces, they had the numbers but the individual firepower of each unit was much smaller. But in the end it really came down to what was the right thing to do, those words of advice from the Archangel's Captain Ramius came back to her, _because I don't know what's going to happen in the future, we have no choice but to do what we feel is right at the moment. If we find out later that we've made a mistake, then we'll cry and get angry. And then we'll think of the future again_, she faced the decision now, she would not make another mistake.

Abruptly messages from PLANT headquarters changed from leave and regroup, to ally with the Archangel, apparently, Lacus Clyne and Ezaria Jule had been negotiating in the past few minutes and had come to the same conclusion, that FAITH forces must be destroyed or made to surrender. The details of the alliance displayed themselves on screens of all ZAFT ships, appended with the digital signatures of all the members of PLANT's High Council except for the Chairman. Some of the ZAFT forces that had earlier turned around for home, now took another turn to the Archangel, where they were put into contact Lacus Clyne who started to arrange the fleet into a defensive screen, awaiting the arrival of enemy forces.

Captain Gladys saw more ZAFT ships fire up their engines and swing towards the Archangel in an escort formation. It was time to decide what to do, as the last ZAFT ships complied with the orders of the PLANT High Council and the ZAFT commanders. Talia had to decide what to do with the new treaty.

_So what will Talia do? Especially as more of Minerva's mobile suit forces defect?_

_A/N: Please REVIEW this...I love your feedback. **Also don't forget to check out the Mwu x Murrue C2 and if you want to recomment fics for it please name them in your review...and I will add. Lastly, don't forget to check out my new Gundam SEED fanfic "Rogue Squadron: Gundam Style" (intro is up, Chapter 1 will be up as soon as I finish this fic - got about 2 chappies left of this one)**_


	17. Chapter 15: Gundam Seed Destiny

Chapter 15: Gundam Seed Destiny

_**A/N: This story is drawing to its close. This will be the last full chapter (epilogue and appendix to come). I'm ending this pretty soon, as I think I will be concentrating on my other stories and I thought that it would be about this long anyway.**_

_**Anyways, it has been real encouraging reading all your reviews and I have to say that I throughly enjoyed writing this. Sorry for the lateness in updating but I have had a major writer's blockin a part of this chapter. Anyway, read and review! And Thanks Again. **_

_KiraLacus forever, Chaos Dragon: No new Gundams for Kira and Athrun cos' it was rather late to put them in without a major re-write._

_LodisLord: Thanks again_

_Fuji: Thanks as well, Dearka x Milli forever!_

_Tandiien: Yes, I actually realised it, whoops. Japanese R and L sound very much alike..._

_RVD, Asga: Thanks heaps for reviews. Sorry for the late late update._

As ZAFT forces stood at a standstill, mulling over the conflicting orders from the Dullindal and the Council which had declared that he was a traitor, the forces of the Clyne Alliance continued to fight against the LOGOS troops under Dullindal's direction. The LOGOS forces continued to launch Rick-Doms, Windams as fast as the Clyne Alliance forces were destroying them, if not faster. The battle was starting to take its toll, and all of them knew that the FAITH fleet had yet to launch.

"Two Gundams detected, Abyss and Chaos," Miriallia said, over the comm. to the Clyne Alliance forces. The Endymion turned to engage the Chaos, releasing its weapons pods, to match the Chaos's. An intense light show began as Mwu began firing. He saw the Murasame slash over the Chaos first weapons pod, firing its cannons. He redoubled his efforts as he fired his beam rifle at the Chaos, simultaneously piloting his weapons pods to engage the Chaos's second.

Cagalli launched herself into the battle, taking on the Abyss, firing her beam rifle as she dodged, using the IWSP's full arsenal; she launched missiles at the Abyss which fired back with its cannon. Cagalli dodged downwards as she saw the Assassin suddenly materialize in behind the Abyss and bring its beam sabre crashing down through the Abyss's cockpit. She looped the Strike Rouge around and turned around to give help to Clyne Alliance Murasames and Zakus which were engaged in a running laser-beam fight against the LOGOS troops.

The Archangel fired its Gottfried cannons and Lohengrin cannons at the LOGOS fleet, as the Eternal peppered the other enemy ships with missiles. LOGOS ships blew up as they were obliterated by the sustained barrage of the Clyne Alliance capital ships. The Archangel rocked as it was hit by enemy Windams, the CIWS systems were not coping with the sheer amount of enemy troops, the Eternal seemed to be in a similar predicament. Murrue shouted, "Fire the Helldart missiles, and evade to port." The Archangel swung towards port, as they saw a squadron of Clyne Alliance Murasame's led by Andy swing past relieving the pressure from the Archangel by destroying the enemy mobile suits, as they transformed from jet form to form a screen around the Archangel.

On the Eternal, Lacus and Da Costa saw that Clyne Alliance Zakus had formed a similar screen around the Eternal. The Eternal continued its stubborn defence of Heliopolis 2 knowing that that LOGOS troops were just the first wave of Dullindal's troops, there was still FAITH troops and the remaining ZAFT troops, which may or may not attack them.

Meanwhile, the Cgue Deep Arms docked on the Eternal, dropping Yzak off, who was greeted by Lacus. Shiho waved Yzak goodbye as she launched back out to help the Clyne Alliance forces. Lacus motioned for Yzak to follow her and they struck up a conversation, "So you decided to help us out, Yzak."

"Well, my mother is giving the orders that Dullindal is to be deposed and that he is a traitor to PLANT and so I have to help in any way I can," Yzak replied, as walked down the corridors of the Eternal.

Lacus led Yzak to the deep storage area of the Eternal where she unveiled the Slayer, "This is for you, Yzak, I believe you will find this much to your liking," Lacus smiled as she waved him onboard.

"Prepare the Slayer for launching," she commed from the deep storage area, as the Slayer rose to launching position. Yzak, inside the cockpit familiarised himself with the controls and weaponry as the bay of the Eternal opened.

On the Minerva, Talia wondered about the new orders, over her past with Gil. It was time to decide and live with the consequences. Years ago, she had walked away from him to marry and have a child, but she had never really let go of their love, now it was time to let go of the past and live for the future. "Arthur advance on the LOGOS fleet, prepare the Tristan and Isolde, Fire on my mark," she ordered, as she committed the Minerva to the side of the Clyne Alliance. "Launch the Zaku's as soon as we get into range, with the order to attack LOGOS forces and then FAITH forces when they arrive. The remaining ZAFT fleet followed the Minerva towards the LOGOS fleet, intent on helping the Clyne Alliance force a victory.

The Endymion continued its battle with Chaos. Mwu continued to fire, at the Chaos, keeping it occupied, while his manoeuvred his weapons pods into place for a final attack. Dropping his beam rifle, he drew the beam saber and charged. In response, he saw the Chaos draw its own beam saber and close in. He watched the numbers scroll down on the proximity monitor, he activated his weapons pods, sending fire aimed beneath the Chaos forcing it to dodge upwards, as he dived downwards, flipped and fired the Endymion's plasma and rail cannons into the Chaos's back, causing it to overload and explode in a cascade of green parts. He allowed himself a small sigh of relief and a sad feeling crept up on him, having killed someone who was like a child to him. He brought the Endymion around to finish off the LOGOS forces attacking the Archangel, firing the rail cannons.

"Yzak Jule, Slayer, launching," Yzak said, as the blue coloured close-combat specialist Gundam launched into the battle, joined quickly by Shiho's unit, as they cut into the LOGOS forces.

With the combined power of the numerous Gundams, the battle began to turn the Clyne Alliance's way. The arrival of the small ZAFT contingent had significantly boosted the firepower of the small fleet. LOGOS troops were quickly being decimated by the fresher ZAFT pilots. Onboard the Archangel, Miriallia reported, "FAITH fleet closing into firing range in approximately one minute." As the status of the FAITH fleet was transmitted to all Clyne Alliance ships, Murrue ordered the Archangel to turn and engage.

FAITH forces launched out Goufs as they engaged the Archangel and its supporters. Kira's Freedom and Athrun's Saviour continued to fight desperately as Dullindal prepared his trump card. The Providence 2 slowly launched from the bay of the FAITH flagship.

Destiny, Gaia, Freedom, Saviour, Slayer and Deep Arms moved in to engage the FAITH fleet, as it launched its troops. Yzak and Shiho worked in tandem moving in towards the _Raww_ (a/n: FAITH flagship), intent on taking Dullindal down. The sensors beeped as they detected the Providence 2. "Looks like they have a Gundam of their own, registering as the Providence 2 on the IFF, Athrun and I will take it down, the rest of you destroy their flagship," Kira said, as he and Athrun turned to engage the Providence 2. Yzak and Shiho led the charge on the _Raww_, followed by Shinn and Stellar.

Kira activated the Freedom's HIMAT system and fired at the Providence 2, as Athrun fired the Saviour's plasma cannon, producing a scintillating light show, aimed right at the Providence 2. However, the pilot of the Providence 2 dodged, and launched his gunbarrels, as they fired at Kira and Athrun, Kira could almost feel the insanity of Raww again. He vowed that he would not let the Providence 2 prevail, as he returned fire with the Freedom's beam rifle, trying to pick off the enemy gunbarrels. Saviour in that time, had transformed into mobile suit mode and similarly tried to pick off the gunbarrels while dodging the fire from the main body.

The Providence 2 blasted forward, towards the mobile suits assaulting the _Raww_. Stellar continued to fire her beam rifle at the incoming FAITH Goufs. Destiny flashed by as it vivisected an enemy capital ship. The Providence 2 centred in on the Gaia and the Destiny as they continued the attack, leaving the Saviour and the Freedom behind.

The Endymion, Assassin, Murasame, and Strike Rouge continued their assault on the enemy FAITH forces. Each leading a squadron of Orb and PLANT troops, they cut swathes through the Dullindal's fleet, as they utilised superior tactics and skill. Cagalli fired the IWSP pack weapons, as her squadron bounced the squadron engaging Andy's squadron, catching them unawares. As the battle co-ordinator on the Eternal issued orders to the respective squadrons under its command, Mwu's squadron slashed across another FAITH squadron, causing them to pursue and fall into the trap as Dearka's squadron of Gunner Zaku Warriors' fired their long-range cannons, space lit up with explosions of FAITH Goufs. "Good job, keep it up," Da Costa's voice came through the Alliance channels.

Meanwhile, the Gaia now engaged Providence 2 as it launched its DRAGOON units, the Destiny moved to intercept as it drew its Arondight anti-ship sword. Shinn threw his all at the pilot of the Providence 2 as its DRAGOONs moved to trap him and Stellar, to push them away from the _Raww_, and the vanguard of the FAITH fleet. As the DRAGOONs kept Shinn busy, the Providence 2 drew its beam lance and engaged the Gaia in close combat. Stellar threw the engine into reverse thrusting away, while firing with her beam rifle, as the Providence 2 came closer. As the Providence 2 closed within close combat range, she drew the Gaia's beam saber and charged. The beam lance and the beam saber clashed in a spectacular light show, as they each pushed at each other. Meanwhile, Shinn was starting to gain the upper hand against the gunbarrels, as he figured out the firing pattern.

The Freedom and the Saviour were quickly catching up, both Kira and Athrun knew that the Providence 2 would have to be defeated quickly, before it could kill anyone. However, FAITH forces rose to block them, and even though they disabled them quickly, they were still quite far from the main battle. However, their appearance created an opening for Yzak and Shiho to quickly slip through a hole in the FAITH defence net. Hopefully, they were going to finish Dullindal quickly, so that this pointless waste of lives would be over.

The Providence 2 continued to fight the Gaia in close, combat, but suddenly, it thrust backwards and charged its beam rifle, catching Stellar by surprise, it shot, damaging the Gaia greatly, causing it to drift. As the Gaia went critical, Shinn saw that the Gaia had taken a direct hit. _Stellar, I'm coming_. He activated the wings of light to deflect the gunbarrel beams as best as possible while he charged straight towards the battle between the Gaia and the Providence 2. The Providence's gunbarrels were unrelenting scoring direct hits which chipped away at the Destiny's armour, he saw the Providence 2 go in for the finishing blow, as he realised that Stellar was escaping, he saw the Providence 2 stab into Gaia's cockpit, just as Stellar had started to get away, and then it exploded. The flash from the explosion was blinding and then Stellar was gone. Shinn screamed, his primal innocence shattered beyond recovery, as he found the rage, the calm at the center, activating the SEED, he no longer cared about anything, but taking down the pilot who in his mind had killed Stellar. Everything else faded away, as it was replaced with a single purpose, a clarity, emotionless, a bottomless black hole from which he would swallow the Providence 2. He charged.

Yzak charged towards the _Raww_, his anti-ship sword held above the Slayer's shoulder reading for a crowning blow. Shiho's CGUE cleared the path, destroying all the enemy mobile suits in the way as the Slayer charged. Dullindal looked out the viewport as he saw the Slayer approach, his eyes widened in a state of shock, as the Slayer brought its sword crashing down through the bridge. The viewport-glass seemed to stand still for a second and then shattered, sending a blast of air out into space. The bridge of the _Raww _exploded as the Slayer withdrew its anti-ship sword, the concussion of the blast driving it backwards. As he died, Dullindal thought, _so they are fated after all_. The FAITH fleet was in disarray as the _Raww_ was destroyed, it found itself outgunned and surrounded by the Clyne Alliance fleet. The remaining FAITH fleet had no choice but to surrender.

Meanwhile, the Destiny, Freedom and Saviour were still engaged in battle against the Providence 2. The Providence gunbarrels were troubling as they scored hits on the Freedom and Saviour. The Providence gunbarrels continued to fire hitting the Freedom on the leg, near the engines, taking it out of the fight. The Saviour suffered a similar hit to the engines, stopping it dead in space.

Only Shinn could stand up against the Providence 2 as he engaged the main body itself. In SEED mode, Shinn dodged the concentrated gunbarrel fire as he charged towards the Providence which drew its own beam saber and moved to engage. The Destiny and the Providence 2 met in a shower of sparks as their weapons hit each other on at close range. The Destiny moved upwards slashing the Providence's left arm off, the Providence's beam saber hacked Destiny's left arm off, as Shinn brought the Destiny around, kicking the Providence with its leg. He charged again, as the Providence 2 drew its beam rifle, he hacked through it, destroying it. The Providence 2 quickly drew its beam saber again and charged again as Shinn bought its palm beam cannons to bear, the Providence 2 dodged and slashed at the other arm.

Shinn had no weapons left, but the Providence 2 had to be taken out. _There's only one way left, I've got nothing left to live for. Stellar, Mayu and my family are all gone. It is time to join them_. Shinn activated his thrusters as the Destiny wrapped its arms around the Providence 2, and began to glow bright gold as the power of SEED combined itself with Shinn's last intent, the Destiny began its countdown sequence to destruction.

"Noooo, Shinn, don't," Kira and Athrun both exclaimed, as he saw the Destiny wrap itself around the second Destroy. The Destiny's wings of light started to glow, red at first then gold and then white and blue, until it cycled through all the colours, the Destiny itself, started to glow bright, the light blinding. Desperately, the pilot of the Providence 2 tried to escape, but Shinn fought his every move, keeping the Destiny wrapped tightly around the Providence 2. Shinn was prepared to die, to save the world. Once Dullindal was gone, there would be no more Mayu's. Finally, he would join his family, Colonel Todaka, Stellar in the afterlife.

Everyone was glued to the ever-glowing Destiny wrapped around the gigantic Providence 2, as it glowed brighter and brighter until it was too painful to look at for everyone's eyes. Everyone on Earth and PLANT were glued to their screens, watching the broadcast. The intensity of the light forced everyone to turn away The light kept expanding and then contracted, blowing the Freedom and the Saviour back. When the light faded, there was nothing but the darkness of space where the Destiny and Providence 2 had been, not even fragments or wreckage.

Onboard, the Minerva, Captain Gladys led the whole crew in a salute to the bravery of Shinn who gave his life so that the world could finally live in peace. All over the world, on the videoscreens broadcasting the war, people dropped everything they were doing and stood in silent salute. And then a cheer erupted, as Lacus started to speak, declaring the end of the war and that peace would be reached, "remember Shinn's brave sacrifice, for his sake and everyone else's, no matter what, no matter who, we are people and we must work together for a better future for all mankind." The impromptu parties in the street went on all night, as people celebrated what would hopefully be the last war for many generations.


	18. Epilogue: Weddings and Funerals

Epilogue – Weddings and Funerals

A few months later, the official co-operation treaty between all nations was signed and came into effect. Immigration and mixing were specifically encouraged, and any discrimination of Naturals and Coordinators was strictly forbidden, in the effort to instil the fact that there was only one people. A statue of Shinn was erected on Orb, at the war memorial commemorating his brave sacrifice for the sake of peace. World leaders vowed that they would not repeat the mistakes of the past ever again.

Kira and Lacus stood at the site of the Orb memorial, along with Cagalli and Athrun, remembering the victims of the war. A statue of Shinn was being mounted in the memorial to serve as a reminder about the cost of peace, and the fact that it was so precious. A day of mourning and celebration had been declared the day that the war ended, privately the crew of the Minerva mourned Shinn's death, Vino and Youlan, Meyrin and Lunamaria all took it really hard and requested personal leave which was granted by the PLANT government.

The crew of the Archangel and the Eternal returned to their former lives before they had taken arms up again. Mwu moved into the seaside cottage with Murrue, in deep mourning over Stellar's death, but Murrue was there to help him over it and soon his heart ached less, as he began to focus on what was in front of him, Murrue and their future together.

A few weeks later, Athrun stood in front of the priest who was going to perform the wedding, the guests were all seated, he saw Mwu and Murrue, Andrew, Talia and all the heroes of the war, looking on. He looked across at Lacus, the maid-of-honour, the woman he was betrothed to for the longest of times, but he now knew that it was his destiny to be with Cagalli, just as much as it was for Kira to be with Lacus. He drew in another breath, more relaxed, knowing that Dearka and Yzak would keep him from stuffing up. For the world this was more than just a wedding, it was a statement that there was no difference between Co-ordinator and Natural, meant to send a powerful message to the last vestiges of any hate between the two groups, but for Athrun's and Cagalli's friends they knew it was nothing more than an expression of their undying love for one another.

As Cagalli walked up the stone steps in a resplendent white wedding gown, accompanied by her brother Kira, who would give her away to his best friend Athrun. Kira wore a black suit and they looked every bit family as they walked past the guests down the aisle. Kira saw Miriallia take photographs of them as they walked closer to Athrun. When they got to the end, Kira let go of Cagalli's arm and took his place next to Lacus. Television cameras were playing this wedding all over the world and all over space.

Cagalli stood opposite Athrun, her one true love. She had been down the aisle before, during the war, about to marry Yuuna, which would have been the biggest mistake of her life. She looked back at Kira, silently thanking him for showing up it the Freedom to save her. She turned back to Athrun as the priest began the wedding ceremony.

"Do you, Athrun Zala take Cagalli Yula Athha to be your lawfully wedded wife. To hold and to cherish, for richer or poorer, through sickness and health, till death do you part?"

"I do," Athrun replied, surer than ever that he and Cagalli were fated to be together forever.

"Do you Cagalli Yula Athha take Athrun Zala to be your lawfully wedded husband. To hold and to cherish, for richer or poorer, through sickness and health till death do you part?"

"I do," Cagalli said, knowing that she had made the right choice, even though there would be people against the marriage, they didn't matter.

"Then by the power vested in me, by the State of Orb, I pronounce you husband and wife," the priest concluded, "you may kiss the bride. Athrun lifted the bridal veil off Cagalli and kissed her on the lips. It felt like bliss for both of them, and they held on to each other for what seemed like forever. Cameras flashed as the many dignitaries and reporters took photographs of the happy couple.

The guests began to disperse for the cocktail party held at the Orb palace, where they would dance the night away, in celebration not only of the joining of two lovers but also the start of the new era of world peace.

Later, the crew of the Archangel and the Eternal gathered for a small private wedding ceremony. As Murrue walked down the aisle in her resplendent white wedding gown, looking down at the man she loved, she couldn't help but remember the last year that she had spent mourning Mwu's supposed death. It was a lot of time lost that they needed to catch up on.

Mwu watched as his bride came walking down the aisle, her gown trailing behind her, _here is the perfect woman, my perfect woman. I'll never let go, never will anything come between us ever again_. As she stopped next to him and the Reverend began to speak, he gazed into her marigold eyes and she into his blue eyes and all they saw was perfection.

All of their closest friends watched as the wedding took place, and as the sun set behind the cliffs, they all thought everything was perfect.

**What happened after**

Kira and Lacus went back to the orphanage where they continued to raise the war orphans to become responsible human beings. Sometimes, Lacus releases a new song, as a reminder of the peace that was achieved. Her songs are eagerly anticipated by all.

Cagalli and Athrun moved into Orb's palace and between Cagalli ruling Orb and their taking lessons on statecraft and politics from college, they managed to spend a lot of quality time together, even though their jobs took up a lot of time.

Miriallia went back to her career as a photographer and Dearka moved to Orb so that they could be together, they travel around the world photographing places, and people getting along together.

Mwu and Murrue retired to a little sea-side cottage where she fell pregnant within three months of their wedding.

Andy and Talia started seeing each other after the war and after she moved to Orb, where they started a Coffee chain. All government workers all over swear that the Coffee from that they brew is the only thing that keeps the government running.

Yzak and Shiho went back to PLANT where he now serves as an aide to his mother in the PLANT supreme council.

And as for Shinn Asuka?

"Hello, Shinn Asuka." A mysterious voice…but yet so familiar.

"Stellar?"

_A/N: Well folks, that's it. Hope you enjoyed the ending. I purposely left the ending open just in case there is a third season of CE Gundam. Did Shinn Asuka and Stellar Loussier really die?_


End file.
